Award Date: 2018

Project Lead(s): Chantal Backman, Associate Professor

Project Title: Your Path to Home - Have you got your Passport App?

What is the issue?

Remembering instructions after returning home from a hospital stay can be overwhelming, especially for patients with dementia and their caregivers. Discharge information must be easy to understand. Older adults and caregivers need to be able to access the instructions and share them with their primary care team.  

What did we do?

We worked with patients, caregivers and healthcare providers to co-design a new web-based application called Path to Home. Our goal was to develop a tool that helps older adults and their caregivers manage individual needs as they transition from hospital to home. We asked 30 patients, 18 caregivers, and 20 providers to test Path to Home and provide their feedback.  

What did we find?

Older adults and caregivers successfully used Path to Home to access their discharge plans and share their preferences and needs with clinicians. They also used the app to access health resources, rehabilitation goals, follow-up appointments, contacts, community resources, and equipment needs. Healthcare clinicians reviewed patients’ needs and preferences, added resources to the health library, and uploaded individualized discharge information.