JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Day surgery is increasingly implemented across Europe, driven in part by capacity problems. Patients recovering at home could benefit from tools tailored to their new care setting to effectively manage their convalescence. The eHealth application ikHerstel is one such tool but although it administers its functions in the home, its implementation hinges on caregivers within the hospital.

Objective:

A feasibility study was conducted in order to investigate the feasibility of an additional, patient-oriented implementation strategy for ikHerstel. Our research question was: How well are patients able to use ikHerstel independent of their caregiver?

Methods:

We investigated the implementation strategy in terms of its recruitment, reach, dose delivered, dose received and fidelity. Patients with a recent or prospective elective surgery were recruited using a wide array of materials to simulate patient-oriented dissemination of ikHerstel. Data were collected through online surveys. Descriptive analysis and open coding were used to analyse the data.

Results:

Recruitment yielded 213 registrations, of whom 55 patients were included. The patient-oriented implementation strategy yielded a reach of 53.9%. All participating patients (100%) received an account for the ikHerstel app and 84.1% created a recovery plan. Patients were satisfied with their independent use of ikHerstel, rating it with an average 7.0 out of 10 and 53.8% of patients (28/52) explicitly reported no difficulties in using it. A major concern of the implementation strategy was the conflict in recommendations between ikHerstel and caregivers, as well as the concomitant feelings of insecurity experienced by patients.

Conclusions:

We may conclude that this strategy is less optimal compared to implementation as usual yet it allows use to reach a population of patients who are otherwise be left unserved. This shows that focus should lie on broadening ikHerstel’s implementation to more hospitals rather than improving the implementation of a patient-oriented strategy.