Patient shadowing as an ethnographic study of staff and patient experience to influence daycase surgery outcomes

Copyright: © 2018 The Authors. Published by Archetype Health Pty Ltd.. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. SUMMARY Patient shadowing can be a valid tool in service evaluation and audit. Performed in large numbers it generates qualitative big data that can be used to increase understanding of patient pathways and experience. Increasing understanding of processes allows for focused improvements targeted to recurring issues and allows systemic understanding of patient experience and a new appreciation of how to assess outcomes from observational reports.