Hip & Knee Patient-Reported Outcomes Survey Information for Patients
If you are having elective hip or knee (orthopedic) surgery, it is important to let your healthcare team know regularly how well you are feeling. You can fill out a survey each time you visit the clinic or as instructed by your healthcare team. This survey sometimes is called “PROMs,” for patient-reported outcome measures, or “ISAAC,” the name of the electronic platform you use to access the survey.
The survey asks about your level of pain, your functional status (how well you manage daily life), your overall quality of life and your orthopedic care.
All people who are having elective hip or knee surgery should complete the survey before and after surgery.
Why You Should Complete the Survey
You do not have to complete the survey if you don’t want to, but there are some benefits to doing it:
- The information helps your healthcare team plan the best possible care for your unique needs.
- Your answers measure how well you are doing before your surgery and how well you are healing afterwards.
Doing the survey before and after surgery means that you and your healthcare team can track your progress over time.
About the Survey
It only takes about 5 minutes to complete the PROMs survey.
Complete your PROMs:
- during your pre-surgical visit to the clinic (within 2 months before your surgery)
- within 3 to 5 months after your surgery
- within 9 to 15 months after your surgery
The survey is available electronically in English and French, and in more languages on paper. Let the clinic staff know if you need to complete the survey in a language other than English or French.
The electronic platform where you access the survey, called ISAAC, is available on tablets and kiosks at hospitals across Ontario. Once you are registered in ISAAC by the clinic staff, you can complete the survey at clinic visits or online from anywhere, including your home.
- Using any electronic device that has internet access – such as desktop computer, laptop, tablet, iPad or smartphone – go to https://promsortho.ccohealth.ca.
- Enter your Health Card Number (no letters, no spaces) OR Medical Record Number (MRN).
- Complete the survey.
If you do the survey, you must answer all of the questions. You cannot skip ahead in the electronic survey. You will have to answer each question to get to the next one.
To change one of your answers while you are doing the survey, click the ‘Back’ button at any time to correct a response. Once you submit your survey you cannot change it, but the registration desk staff at the clinic can do this for you.
Need Help with the Survey?
Clinic staff can show you how to use the tablet, kiosk or your personal device to complete the survey while you are at the clinic.
Please talk to a member of your healthcare team if you would like to see or change your past symptom scores.
Your Privacy is Important to Us
The information you give through your PROMs is collected and stored in a system called ISAAC (Integrated Symptom Assessment and Collection). ISAAC is a secure web-based electronic platform. Only clinical staff directly involved in your care and ISAAC administrators can access the responses from your personal survey.
We use an anonymous version of the information to report to the Ministry of Health about patient-reported outcome trends. Your information is combined with the information of other patients treated in the clinic to see if there are any trends and for the purpose of quality control and provincial reporting.
If you have completed the electronic survey on ISAAC and you no longer wish to share your personal health information and previous responses, your hospital can remove your information from the ISAAC system. The hospital may keep a copy of your information according to their hospital’s policy. Please contact the hospital registration desk for more information.
Questions?
If you have questions about the patient-reported outcomes survey or the ISAAC tool, your healthcare team or the registration desk staff can help.