Why is it vital to learn how to write a customized patient letter before surgery? Patients embark on their surgical journey as soon as they walk through the doors of your office.

Every step of the process is important – from the length of time spent in the waiting room to the interaction with the surgeon to the patient letter received prior to surgery, and of course the outcome of the procedure itself.

Undergoing surgery can be an unsettling experience for patients, but there are steps your practice can take to help alleviate patients’ worries – starting with the right paperwork.

Going Above And Beyond 

• Personalized Patient Letters
• First Impressions of Patient Letters Matter
• Writing a Letter to a Patient Experiencing a Surgical Procedure:
  • Beginner Patient Letters
  • Advanced Patient Letters
  • Ultimate Patient Letters
• Summary

Personalized Patient Letters

Many practices underestimate the importance of clear and concise patient letters with pre-op instructions. These surgical practices end up paying the price with:

• Confused patients
• Unnecessary follow-up calls
• Cancelled surgeries

The good news is that learning how to write a letter to a patient facing surgery is easy and has a remarkably positive impact on your patients’ surgical experience.

First Impressions of Patient Letters Matter

Imagine you are a patient about to undergo a total shoulder reconstruction under general anesthesia. Your encounter with the surgeon was very positive and you feel convinced that the surgery is necessary. But the decision is not an easy one.

The surgery will cost you money out-of-pocket, you will have to pay for the OR time and the anesthesiologist, and take time off work to recover afterward. The days following your meeting with the surgeon still leave you feeling somewhat uncertain. And then you receive an ugly preoperative note sample in the mail.

The form looks like a photocopy of a fax that was scanned in 1998. The company logo is outdated, the lines are crooked, and you can barely see the date your surgery is scheduled for.

Parts of the letter have been crossed out because the protocols don’t apply to you. Other paragraphs have been added by hand because there are certain pre-appointments you need to attend.

The surgical coordinator has handwritten the information into the letter – as she did for all the other paperwork for your surgery – but being strapped for time, much of it is illegible and you can’t decipher the essential information.

This “letter” is your final impression of the surgical practice before you go under the knife. As you can imagine, this is not a very comforting letter to a patient regarding surgery, is it?

More than Just an Operation Surgery Letter to a Patient

Now imagine that you receive a different patient letter in the mail instead. A clean, printed piece with legible font and consistent margins. It has the practice’s logo, a picture of your surgeon, and even the details your surgeon talked about with you.

What a difference! A neat and organized letter for a patient with all of your customized information, including pre-op instructions tailored specifically for your surgery.

Since everything is laid out so clearly, you won’t need to call the practice to clarify any information, and now you feel confident that everything is set and under control for the surgery.

Aside from providing a better overall patient experience, customized paperwork greatly benefits practices, too. There are fewer cancellations due to instructions not being followed or scheduling miscommunication. And, just as importantly, the practice imparts a more professional image.

Writing a Letter to a Patient Experiencing a Surgical Procedure

There are many ways to improve writing a letter to a patient; ultimately it’s a question of how much time and effort you’re able to invest.

To keep things simple, we’ve grouped the best practices into Beginner, Advanced, and Ultimate.

Beginner Patient Letters

Just making a few small changes to your letter for a patient undergoing surgery can make a big difference. We recommend following these steps when focusing on how to write a letter to a patient:

1. Re-draft the letter using Microsoft Word or other word processing software.
2. Use an up-to-date logo.
3. If there are different protocols for different surgeries, create a few templates of the patient letter that are clearly labeled for each surgery type.
4. Type the patient’s specific information instead of handwriting it.
5. Highlight important dates and times so they stand out.
6. For each patient, delete paragraphs not applicable to their surgery.
7. Save the templates of the surgery letter to a patient in a folder or on your network and label them appropriately.
8. Create one folder for each surgeon, surgery type, and hospital.

Advanced Patient Letters

Use a mail merge to automatically produce multiple patient letters from a single template and a data source. You can use any word processor and data source software. In this guide, we’ll explain how to write a letter to a patient using two of the most popular programs – Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.

1. Use Microsoft Word to draft a concise generic patient letter. Collaborate with your coworkers to ensure that they can use the letter as well, to eliminate the need for multiple versions. Make sure that the formatting is perfect, the font is large enough for the visually impaired, and the logo is up-to-date.
2. Leave blank spaces where information will differ from letter to letter, e.g. patient first name, surgeon name, procedure name, date, hospital, etc.
3. Name the document appropriately eg. Surgery Letter to Patient and save it on the office network where everyone who needs it can easily access it.
4. Use a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet to create lists of all information that will need to be inserted into the patient letter. For example, create columns for Patient Title, Patient First Name, Patient Last Name, Surgeon Name, Procedure Type, Post Op Appointment Date, and any other information that could change within the letter.
5. Save the Excel spreadsheet under a recognizable name, in the same folder as the letter, e.g. if the letter file is called Surgery Letter to Patient.docx, name the Excel file Surgery Letter to Patient Data.xlsx
6. Open the letter for a patient in Word again.
7. Select Select Recipients > Use an Existing List. Select the Excel file containing the patient letter data. An Open Workbook dialog box will appear. Click OK.
8. Now enter data field tags in the letter that corresponds to the data fields in the Excel file.
9. Put your cursor in one of the blank spaces you left in the letter, earlier. Select Insert Merge Field > Use an Existing List. In the dialog box that appears, select the database field you want to insert in this space, then click Insert.
10. Repeat this step until the letter is populated with all the relevant fields. Save your document when you’re done.
11. Double-check that all the fields have been inserted correctly by pressing Preview Results and browsing through your letters using the arrow keys.
12. When you’re done, press Finish and Merge, then Print Documents.
    In the dialog box that appears, you can choose to print all letters to patients regarding surgery, print the letter that’s currently open, or print a series of letters. Make your selection, then press OK. Depending on your computer’s printer settings, you should be able to choose between printing to a physical printer or a virtual PDF printer.

You did it. Now you know how to write a letter to a patient going through a surgical procedure. By following the above steps to writing a letter to a patient you can also generate customized envelopes and labels.

Ultimate Patient Letters

Use Surgimate’s surgical coordination software to generate all customized patient letters, as well as insurance and hospital paperwork, with just one click:

1. Store all of your practice’s forms inside Surgimate’s Form Generator feature and print-on-demand.
2. Enter surgical details in seconds with customized templates.
3. With one click, print any form you need with all fields automatically populated – including patient data, insurance information, and surgical details – all with 100% accuracy.
4. Email or fax forms directly to the hospital or insurance vendors, or save them as PDFs for future use.

Why It’s Necessary to Learn How to Write a Letter to a Patient Undergoing Surgery

As explained above, doctor-patient communication, which is often facilitated by surgical practices, is a vital component of the surgery process for patients. Sending a professional, clear, and easy-to-read surgery letter to a patient helps to alleviate some of the stress and worry of having a surgical procedure. That is why it is important to invest time in learning how to write a patient letter.