Introduction To protect patient safety in the operating room it is important to create awareness among surgeons and anaesthetists on their own work readiness and its influence on their performance. The purpose of the study was to design a tool (DOCpass), study its feasibility in daily operating room practice and redesign it based on suggestions made by future end users.

Methods The content of the DOCpass prototype was selected on the basis of aspects of health and work that can influence performance as was found in literature. A suitable platform was subsequently chosen to meet pre-defined requirements such as ease of use and accessibility of the tool. To determine the feasibility in the operating room practice and collect points of improvement for redesign, post-task walkthroughs were organised with surgeons and anaesthetists at a university medical centre in the Netherlands.

Result DOCpass was developed as a webpage in JavaScript and HTML which makes the tool accessible from local hospital computers or mobile devices (e.g. mobile phone, tablet). It screens for personal aspects (e.g. fatigue and mood states) and work-related aspects (e.g. shift and sleeping time duration) that have been found to affect performance and patient safety in practice. A total of 13 improvement points were suggested by future end users and the prototype was adjusted according to these. The improvements concerned the content of the introduction, the relevance of screening methods and applicability of feedback.

Conclusion DOCpass assesses and provides feedback on work readiness in colour coding through digital screening of work and personal health aspects. Participating surgeons and anaesthetists in the feasibility study reported that the tool is potentially useful in the operating room were the content to be improved. Feedback that is provided should be easy to act upon and could in this way add practical value to work.