A Patient-oriented Risk Communication Tool to Improve Patient Experience, Knowledge and Outcomes After Elective Surgery

Many people have inpatient surgery each day. Most people will have no complications but some will have minor or serious complications. The risk of having complications can vary from one person to another depending on personal factors such as; age, medical conditions such as diabetes and whether someone smokes or takes certain medications. The Investigators have learned that people want more information about their surgeries, both the general information about the risk for complications, but also more specific information about whether they are personally more or less likely to have complications. Patients are also interested in practical information such as how long they might stay in the hospital and what the recovery period will be like for them. Receiving more information can help decrease a person's level of anxiety about their surgery. The Investigators are doing this study with the assistance of the mHealth Lab at The Ottawa Hospital (a team that develops simple technologies for managing health information). The Investigators will implement and evaluate a novel, innovative tablet-based, patient-oriented risk communication application to evaluate patient knowledge of their own surgical risk before and after their visit to the Pre-Admission Unit (PAU). The Investigators will also be exploring any potential levels of anxiety before and after the PAU visit, in addition to patient satisfaction with their PAU visit. The Investigators hypothesize that it will: improve patient knowledge and experience, not increase anxiety, be acceptable to patients and clinicians, and will improve care efficiency for TOH surgical patients.