Informing Family About Patient Trajectory During Surgery: Design and Preliminary Evaluation

The patient empowerment movement has highlighted the importance of providing information to the patients to improve care outcome. However, relatives of patients are not yet taken into consideration. This is especially problematic during surgeries since families are often left without real-time information about the trajectory of the patient, inducing worries. Based on this observation we have developed the SMS-Chir solution that connects our surgery service management system with the automatic sending of SMS at key moments in order to inform families about the progression of the surgery. The system has been conceived thanks to the results of a focus group involving four experts. The evaluation was done by monitoring the use of the system over time and by sending questionnaires after intervention. Results analysis shows a limited use of the system but a high satisfaction of the beneficiaries. This study highlights the importance of managerial factors (resistance to change) in order to onboard the necessary stakeholders in the process.