Objectives: Readmission following colorectal surgery, typically due to surgery-related complications, is common. Patient-centered discharge warnings may guide recognition of early complication signs after colorectal surgery.
Materials and methods: User-centered design of a discharge warnings tool consisted of iterative health literacy review and a heuristic evaluation with human factors and clinical experts as well as patient end users to establish content validity and usability.
Results: Literacy evaluation of the prototype suggested >12th-grade reading level. Subsequent revisions reduced reading level to 8th grade or below. Contents were formatted during heuristic evaluation into 3 action-oriented zones (green, yellow, and red) with relevant warning lexicons. Usability testing demonstrated comprehension of this 3-level lexicon and recognition of appropriate patient actions to take for each level.
Discussion: We developed a discharge warnings tool for colorectal surgery using staged user-centered design. The lexicon of surgical discharge warnings could structure communication among patients, caregivers, and clinicians to improve post-discharge care.
Keywords: colorectal surgery; discharge instructions; health literacy; readmissions; usability testing.
Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association 2017. This work is written by US Government employees and is in the public domain in the United States.