Aims Person-centred care is fundamental to effective healthcare, yet no existing tools with symptom checklists capture patients’ medicine-related outcomes and experiences during hospitalisation. This study aims to develop a patient-reported outcome and experience measure, incorporating a symptom checklist, for evaluating potential medication-related harm and medicine experiences in hospital inpatients.
Methods An iterative, participatory design approach was applied, encompassing two rounds of consumer workshops, semi-structured interviews with pharmacists and medical officers, and piloting with hospital inpatients. This process aimed to ensure the questionnaire captured the outcomes and experiences most important to consumers, was easily understood, and feasible for acute inpatient use. Feedback was analysed using reflexive thematic analysis and incorporated into questionnaire revisions.
Results Six consumers participated in the workshops, 12 clinicians were interviewed, and 21 inpatients were involved in piloting. Themes included: (1) language must be unambiguous and patient centric; (2) visual aids with verbal administration improve patient understanding and engagement; (3) diverse patient voices must be included during development; (4) a comprehensive list of self-reportable symptoms and feedback on coordination and responsiveness of care should be included; (5) patients require an opportunity to advocate for high-quality care if experiences are suboptimal; (6) scales should be consistent with a neutral midpoint; (7) questionnaire logistics should balance feasibility with research aims and (8) the tool should provide routine handover of symptoms but maintain anonymity for experiences.
Conclusions The multi-faceted participatory design process meaningfully integrated consumer and clinician perspectives to ensure the questionnaire was fit-for-purpose and addressed key stakeholder needs.