Measuring the Recovery of Barts Health Patients With Electronic Follow-up

This is a qualitative study, with data collected through semi-structured interviews with patients and clinical staff with experience of using the ePRO system. Topic guides for both patients and clinicians have been developed based upon previous similar studies and with input from our study PPI group.

The patients for qualitative study will be consented by the coordinator. This will be done when the patients are invited to participate in the PROSPER study. The ePRO project is a service evaluation project registered with the Clinical Effectiveness Unit (CEU). The sample for qualitative study will be based on age, gender, ethnicity, language spoken, digital literacy and reason for admission. Patients who consent to participate will be interviewed twice about their experience of using the ePRO system. Interviews will be done approximately 2-3 weeks after the ePRO questionnaire completion time points of 1 and 6 months respectively. Interviews will follow the interview topic guide, with semi-structured questions exploring both the research objectives as above, will be conducted on the telephone and will be audio recorded and transcribed. Clinicians and health care staff will also be interviewed to assess their perception of usefulness of the electronic questionnaires.

Inclusion criteria

• Patients undergoing emergency laparotomy, regardless of admission to the Adult Critical Care Unit.
• Patients requiring Level 3 care admitted to the Adult Critical Care Unit with length of stay of >56 hours
• Clinical staff involved in the pathway of care affected by the ePRO.
• Purposive sampling to include patients based on age, gender, ethnicity, language spoken, digital literacy and reason for admission

Exclusion criteria

Those patients <18 years of age

• Those not expected to survive 3 months post discharge; as per clinical decision making
• Patients unable to consent to and without carers able to consent;