Chapter 8 130 Abstract Objective: The duration of hospital admissions has shortened significantly. This challenges healthcare professionals to provide the necessary information and instructions in a limited time. Patient-tailored discharge information may improve the patient’s understanding of the discharge information but may also be timeconsuming. The objective of this descriptive quality improvement study was to evaluate patient comprehension of discharge information using a novel computergenerated patient-tailored discharge document. Methods: A prospective pre-post study comparing patient-tailored discharge information with conventional discharge information, for patients undergoing an electrophysiological procedure during two periods of six weeks between January and March 2016. Group I received conventional discharge information (n = 55). Group II received a computer-generated, patient-tailored discharge document (n = 57). Their comprehension of the discharge information was evaluated using a peer-reviewed questionnaire distributed among patients, comparing groups I and II using Likert scales. Nurses and nurse practitioners evaluated the use of personalized discharge information by means of a short survey. Results: In terms of discharge information, comprehensibility was equivalent; however, an increase in comprehension was observed in patients seeking a telephone consultation with the cardiology department within one-week postdischarge. A reduction in discharge preparation time and an increased uniformity of discharge information were reported by nurses. Nurse practitioners found the web tool easy to use and time-saving. Conclusions: In this study, computer-generated patient-tailored discharge information was equivalent to conventional discharge information. A more positive trend was seen for patients who initiated teleconsultation with the hospital within oneweek post-discharge. This suggests that for this subgroup the patient-tailored discharge web tool might lead to an improvement in care. However, more research with a larger number of participants is needed to confirm this trend.
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