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Robotic coronary artery bypass (rCABG) is a relatively novel and less invasive form of surgery. A yearlong direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) campaign was initiated to provide the community with information regarding rCABG, increase awareness and recruit patients. To optimize information content and ensure appropriate messaging for future campaigns, this study aims to analyze the campaign effectiveness and compared service quality perceptions and clinical outcomes, following surgery across DTCA-responder and control groups.

The institution initiated an rCABG program and one-year DTCA campaign. The authors prospectively documented all rCABG referrals prompted by these ads (DTCA-responder group) and concurrent referrals from medical providers (controls). Groups were compared according to baseline characteristics, perioperative outcomes, patient satisfaction (HCAHPS survey) and functional capacity at three weeks (Duke Activity Status Index). At six months, both groups were surveyed for patient satisfaction and unmet expectations.

There were 103 DTCA responders and 77 controls. The subset of responders that underwent rCABG (n = 54) had similar characteristics to controls, except they were younger, less likely to have lung disease or to be scheduled as an urgent case. Both groups had similar 30-day clinical outcomes, functional capacity recovery and overall satisfaction at three weeks. Follow-up interviews at six months and four years revealed that the DTCA group reported more unmet expectations regarding the “size of the skin incisions” and “recovery time” but no concern about “expertise of their surgeon”.

The DTCA campaign was effective at recruiting patients. The specific focus of the ads and narrow timeframe for decision-making about CABG lends confidence that the incremental cases seen during the campaign were prompted primarily by DTCA. However, differences in unmet expectations underscore the need to better understand the impact of message content on patients recruited via DTCA campaigns.

This is one of the first studies to provide real-world direct empirical evidence of patients’ clinical and attitudinal outcomes for DTCA campaigns. Furthermore, the findings contradict prevailing beliefs that DTCA is ineffective for prompting surgical referrals.

The purpose of this study is to develop and test a model on antecedents and consequences of employee engagement in the context of information technology (IT) employees.

In this descriptive research, the data were collected from 432 employees working in IT companies operating in India. The authors performed structural equation modeling to test the proposed relationships.

The results of this study indicate a positive effect of perceived procedural justice, perceived distributive justice and perceived organizational support on employee engagement. Further, the results of this study show a positive effect of employee engagement on employees’ organizational commitment (OC) and a negative effect on employees’ turnover intentions.

As this study uses self-reported and cross-sectional research design to collect the data, therefore, it limits the generalizations of the results.

The findings of this study can be beneficial for the senior managers and human resources functionaries by examining the antecedents and consequences of employee engagement.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the few studies that have examined the mediating role of employee engagement on the relationship among organizational justice, organizational support, OC and employee turnover intentions.