The Child's Voice in Satisfaction with Hospital Care

Area of Science:

• Pediatric healthcare quality improvement.
• Patient-reported outcomes research.
• Health services research.

Background:

• Patient satisfaction is a key indicator for evaluating healthcare quality.
• Current pediatric satisfaction measures often exclude children's perspectives.
• A need exists for models incorporating child and parent feedback.

Purpose of the Study:

• To test the feasibility and acceptability of a novel model for pediatric patient satisfaction assessment.
• To compare satisfaction ratings collected from both children and parents versus parents alone.
• To evaluate the inclusion of child voices in pediatric care quality assessment.

Main Methods:

• A randomized, two-arm, unblinded cohort study was conducted.
• Inclusion of child (7-17 years) and parent reports (Arm 1) versus parent-only reports (Arm 2).
• Assessments occurred at discharge (T1) and 10 days post-discharge (T2).

Main Results:

• High enrollment (89.3%) and completion rates (75%) were achieved.
• Both children and parents preferred providing ratings at discharge (98.6% and 99.8%).
• Ratings remained consistent between T1 and T2; no significant differences between study arms.

Conclusions:

• Children aged 7-17 and their parents are willing and amenable to providing satisfaction ratings prior to hospital discharge.
• This model offers a valid approach for measuring hospitalized children's satisfaction with care.
• The findings support a new measurement strategy for pediatric hospital care satisfaction.