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A survey of children's reported experience in outpatient pediatric ophthalmology clinics
Insights
Children in pediatric ophthalmology clinics reported that helpful staff improved their experience, while long waits and boredom were significant concerns. Addressing these issues can enhance pediatric healthcare services.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric healthcare
- Patient experience measurement
- Ophthalmology services
Background:
- Patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) are crucial in contemporary healthcare.
- Monitoring children's healthcare experiences presents unique challenges.
- Understanding pediatric patient perspectives is essential for service improvement.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the experiences of children in outpatient pediatric ophthalmology clinics.
- To gather direct feedback from pediatric patients regarding their clinic visits.
- To identify areas for enhancing the pediatric ophthalmology service.
Main Methods:
- Questionnaires were developed and administered to children aged 2–16 years.
- Data collection occurred across three different pediatric ophthalmology clinic sites.
- Ninety-three completed questionnaires provided insights into patient experiences.
Main Results:
- Helpful staff were consistently cited as a positive factor in patient experience.
- Extended waiting times and boredom were frequently reported negative aspects.
- Visual acuity testing was enjoyed but also perceived as challenging; eye drops caused mild pain.
Conclusions:
- Key areas for service improvement include engaging children during waits and reducing overall waiting times.
- Improving clarity on healthcare professional roles is needed to reduce patient confusion.
- While acknowledging limitations, questionnaire-based feedback from children offers valuable insights for clinic enhancement.
Purpose:
Patient-reported experience measures influence contemporary health care. To monitor the experience of children in health care, some inherent difficulties must be overcome. The authors sampled the opinion of children in outpatient pediatric ophthalmology clinics.
Methods:
Questionnaires were designed and distributed to children ages 2 to 16 years in pediatric ophthalmology clinics over three sites.
Results:
Ninety-three forms were completed by children ages 2 to 16 years. The average duration of clinic visits was 69 minutes. Children commented that helpful staff improved their experience. Waiting times and boredom were negative issues raised consistently. Children particularly enjoyed visual acuity testing, which they also described as the most challenging aspect of the clinic. On average, patients found eye drops only mildly painful.
Conclusions:
Various areas for service improvement were identified from this study, including the value of keeping children occupied and minimizing waiting times. It was not clear to children which healthcare professionals they were seeing and this was an area of confusion. Adolescent patients felt the clinic was too childish. Sampling children's opinions through questionnaires had some limitations in terms of some inconsistencies of response, incomplete questionnaires, and multiple answers, but overall provided useful information specific to the clinics.
