Bridging the Gap: Developing a Co-Designed Resource to Support the Hospital-to-Home Transition Following Limb Loss

During the hospital-to-home transition, people with limb loss and their caregivers can face several practical, physical, social and psychological challenges. These challenges are amplified by gaps in transitional care support, ultimately leading to readmissions and increased healthcare costs.

This co-design research project aimed to help bridge the gap between hospital to home by working collaboratively with 10 healthcare providers, 14 people with limb loss, and 15 caregivers to (a) understand the transition from hospital to home and identify gaps in transitional care; and (b) co-construct a resource that aimed to bridge these gaps and better facilitate this transitionary process.

Underpinned and informed by experience-based co-design, ethnographic observation (n = 18 months) and semi-structured interviews (n = 49) were used to gather and understand service-users, healthcare providers, and caregivers' experiences of the transition and identify support gaps. Three working groups were then formed to co-design a resource to address support gaps.

Four gaps in transitional support were identified: information support, communication support, emotional and social support, and care continuity. Recommendations for addressing these gaps were developed with people with limb loss and their caregivers and disseminated to staff members within the rehabilitation centre. A co-designed educational booklet was then created that aimed to address all four support gaps.

Overall, this study aims to guide future researchers and limb centre rehabilitation teams in addressing gaps in transitional care by centralising the voices of service-users and caregivers, ensuring that they shape the development of evidence-based strategies for meaningful and sustainable change.

Health care workers, people with limb loss, and their caregivers were actively involved throughout the study, contributing to both its design and development. Their insights played a central role in identifying support gaps, refining study priorities, and developing actionable recommendations. In addition, they participated in co-design workshops where they collaboratively co-created the educational resource to ensure it was relevant, accessible, and responsive to their lived experiences.