CARE Qualitative Study (CARE)

June 3, 2026 updated by: University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust

Cardiac Surgery Aftercare and Recovery Evaluation (CARE) - Understanding Patients' and Carers' Views About the Care Received After Leaving Hospital Following Cardiac Surgery: a Qualitative Study

Over 30,000 people have heart surgery in the UK every year. Heart surgery is safe, but around 1 in 5 people having heart surgery will be readmitted to hospital in the year after their operation. There is no research that explains why they come back into hospital. It may be because they have a complication from the heart surgery, such as an irregular heart rhythm. Or it may be because they have other health problems which the heart surgery has made worse. Researchers want to find out what care is provided to people after heart surgery and what participants and healthcare staff think should be offered to prevent people coming back to hospital. The overall aim of this Programme Development Grant is to undertake preparatory work that will allow researchers to identify the best approach to improve care after hospital discharge for people having heart surgery.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Estimated)

24

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • United Kingdom
    • Bristol
      • Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom, BS13NU
        • Recruiting
        • University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Any eligible participant/family/carer being seen as an outpatient at the study sites

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Patients who have had elective or urgent cardiac surgery such as coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, heart valve surgery, aortic surgery (thoracic aorta) within the last 12 months
  • Family members/carers of patients who have had cardiac surgery in the last 12 months.
  • Patients who are no longer undergoing inpatient or outpatient follow-up by their cardiac surgeon

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients who have had cardiac transplantation
  • Patients who are still undergoing follow-up by their cardiac surgery team
  • People who are unable to provide informed consent
  • Prisoners

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
What aftercare do patients undergoing cardiac surgery currently receive after discharge from hospital and what kind of aftercare do they want?
Time Frame: Through study completion, an average on 1 month
The aim of this study is to identify via questionnaire what aftercare patients, families/carers, want after cardiac surgery and what the barriers are to accessing it.
Through study completion, an average on 1 month

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust

Collaborators

University of Sheffield

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

May 27, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

March 31, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

March 31, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 22, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 20, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

May 28, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 5, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 3, 2026

Last Verified

May 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

  • CS/2025/7856
  • NIHR209618 (Other Grant/Funding Number: NIHR)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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