Computer-generated patient-tailored discharge document 131 1. Introduction and background Patients require comprehensive information concerning their illness, treatment and daily management, which entails conveying sufficient knowledge to patients by healthcare professionals, with the objective of improving compliance and self-care (1). The current duration of hospital admission has shortened significantly (2), which challenges healthcare professionals to provide the necessary information and instructions. There is only a limited amount of time available to provide instructions, but also the timing is shortly after an invasive procedure in which patients may be less receptive to receiving information (3). The provided instructions should at least cover lifestyle and discharge (aiming at reducing post-procedural complications) since these instructions are important to improve outcomes (4). Poor health literacy can result in delayed treatment of post-procedural complications as the potential postintervention symptoms are not recognized, and thus these patients do not contact a healthcare provider in time (5). Importantly, the older the patient the higher the risk of a knowledge deficit which may consequently result in an increased risk of adverse events (6). Typically, the essential information is conveyed verbally along with standardized patient discharge information booklets. Although these standardized booklets have been shown to increase patient knowledge retention (7,8), it has been advocated that personalized (patient-tailored) discharge information may further improve patient comprehension (9,10), especially if it is integrated into a patienttailored discharge procedure (11). The routine practice for patients undergoing invasive electrophysiological procedures at our center includes a standardized discharge information booklet and nonstructured verbal post-discharge instructions from a healthcare provider (e.g. nurse(-practitioner) and/or medical doctor). In addition, a telephone follow-up, approximately 1-week post-discharge, is included in the clinical practice. During this follow-up, which includes an evaluation of the hospitalization, it was observed that the discharge instructions provided proved unclear for some patients (particularly for adjustment in medication regimen), consequently leading in some cases to increased patient anxiety. This resulted in an initiative to improve the post discharge procedure by providing patient-tailored information in a uniform discharge document created using a dedicated web-based tool. 8
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