Beyond acute orthopedic trauma care: Investigating patients’ unmet needs after hospital discharge

This pre-registration outlines a mixed-methods project aimed at investigating unmet needs among surgically treated adult orthopedic trauma patients during the first year after hospital discharge. The study will consist of two parts. First, a mixed-methods systematic literature review will be conducted to examine existing perspectives on the topic. The second part comprises a questionnaire study utilizing two questionnaires developed specifically for this project. One of these questionnaires will be administered to patients in the target group who were discharged from the hospital between three and twelve months ago, aiming to assess their perceptions of unmet needs and potential strategies for addressing those needs. The other questionnaire, designed to correspond closely with that of the patients, will be distributed to healthcare providers, including orthopedic surgeons and general practitioners, to assess their views on the topic. Insights from both the systematic literature review and questionnaire study will be integrated into one article to provide a comprehensive overview of unmet needs among surgically treated adult orthopedic trauma patients. Findings will inform the development of an intervention aimed at improving health-related quality of life among the target group during the first year after hospital discharge.