Table 6 Quotes from patients

Past experience of preoperative risk assessment discussions

“You’re always told [the] risks. It’s verbalized. All this stuff is being thrown at you, the surgery, recovery, what’s gonna—all this stuff. You don’t necessarily always remember.”

“I didn’t have family with me at the time, so when [the patient’s family] said “Well, what did they say?” and I didn’t hear a word after, “You need a total abdominal hysterectomy.”

Issues that emerged from past experience of preoperative risk assessment discussions

For one patient, the emotional trauma was not explained as well as it could have been: “I suffered from horrible depression–dark depression for a couple of months after the surgery that really impeded—I didn’t even want to get out of bed or walk or anything. I mean my mental state of mind, it went upside down.”

The overall opinion of the SURPAS tool

“This would make me as a patient pay more attention to this type of procedure, what are [the] risks?”

SURPAS “...helps the patient feel more confident that the provider is listening to them, understanding their bodies, and it also puts some ownership … back on the patient.”

“If your risk is more, I think it really will make you consider more carefully the benefits of the surgery as opposed to the problems that you could end up with. I can’t see that it would do any harm.”

Opinion of SURPAS tool visual aids for patients/Preferred display of risks

“...emotionally a wonderful piece of information. Knowing that I had even an increased risk or a decreased risk versus a national average, I think, would be also very helpful just as a comparison.

Potential concerns with being provided risk assessment information

A patient worried that, “People get caught up on the numbers. Percentages are great. People want to see that, especially when they’re individualized compared to the population in general... But, if a procedure doesn’t go well, if there’s a complication... “You told me [my risk] was… one [percent].” Now you’ve got a disgruntled patient. Your customer service ratings are going to go down. Litigation, try to go that route over a number getting hung up could be a little bit of a downside with nice personalized numbers as well.”