Background

Inpatient portals have been introduced into tertiary hospitals to meet patients’ information and communication needs, to increase their awareness of health care, and to facilitate their transition after discharge. However, there is inadequate knowledge about hospitalised oncology patients’ use and perceptions of these technologies.

Objective

To explore cancer patients’ use and perceptions of an inpatient portal in a tertiary hospital and to identify the main benefits and barriers for patients in using the portal.

Method

A qualitative case study was conducted in a tertiary hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Only cancer patients were invited to participate. Twenty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted in the patient’s room in a cancer care centre in January 2020. Interviews were audio-recorded, fully transcribed, and analysed using a thematic analysis method.

Results

Most patients used the portal for the first time. The most used features were entertainment, watching fall prevention videos and viewing medication lists. Although the majority of patients were positive towards the portal, and considered it to be useful and easy to use, only a small number of them used the key clinical feature of the system such as pain assessment, health education, and discharge preparation. The patients would like to see further improvement in usability of the portal, appropriate user training, adding further information, and incorporating more services and features in the portal.

Conclusion

The introduction of the inpatient portal is successful in improving cancer patients’ hospitalisation experience. It helped cancer patients to acquire knowledge about their own health, to actively engage in their care processes, and to request and acquire electronic services, in addition to providing entertainment. Future research on which factors inspire patients’ use of the portal and how the influence is achieved is needed for the successful integration of the portal into the patients’ hospital care process.

中文翻译：

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了解癌症患者的使用和对住院门的认识：以沙特阿拉伯一家三级医院为例

背景

三级医院已经引入了住院门户网站，以满足患者的信息和沟通需求，以提高他们的医疗保健意识，并促进他们出院后的过渡。但是，关于住院肿瘤患者对这些技术的使用和认知的知识不足。

目的

探索癌症患者对三级医院住院门户网站的使用和看法，并确定患者使用门户网站的主要好处和障碍。

方法

在沙特阿拉伯利雅得的一家三级医院进行了定性案例研究。仅癌症患者被邀请参加。2020年1月，在癌症护理中心的患者房间内进行了22次半结构式访谈。对访谈进行了录音，完全转录并使用主题分析方法进行了分析。

结果

大多数患者是第一次使用门户网站。最常用的功能是娱乐，观看防摔视频和查看药物清单。尽管大多数患者对该门诊持肯定态度，并认为它是有用且易于使用的，但只有少数患者使用了该系统的关键临床功能，例如疼痛评估，健康教育和出院准备。患者希望看到门户可用性的进一步改善，适当的用户培训，添加更多信息以及在门户中合并更多服务和功能。

结论

住院门户的引入成功地改善了癌症患者的住院经验。它不仅可以提供娱乐服务，还可以帮助癌症患者获得有关自身健康的知识，积极参与护理过程以及请求和获得电子服务。为了将门户成功整合到患者的医院护理过程中，需要进一步研究哪些因素会激发患者对门户的使用以及如何实现影响。