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Recommendations from parents, administrative staff and clinicians to improve paediatric ambulatory appointment
Alecia Kallos1,2, Arnaldo Perez3, Marcus G O'Neill2
1Three Hive Consulting, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Insights
Parents, administrative staff, and clinicians offered similar recommendations to improve pediatric ambulatory appointment scheduling. Their input can optimize clinic planning and communication for better patient care.
Area of Science:
- Healthcare Management
- Pediatric Healthcare
- Qualitative Research
Background:
- Paediatric ambulatory appointment scheduling is complex, requiring effective planning and communication.
- Stakeholder input is crucial for optimizing this process.
- Challenges exist in appointment availability, waitlist management, booking, reminders, and attendance policies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To characterize recommendations from parents, administrative staff, and clinicians.
- To identify strategies for improving paediatric ambulatory appointment scheduling.
Main Methods:
- Qualitative descriptive study conducted from February 2018 to January 2019.
- Focus groups with 46 participants across three stakeholder groups: parents, administrative staff, and clinicians.
- Data analyzed using manifest inductive content analysis.
Main Results:
- Recommendations focused on appointment triaging (availability, waitlist management) and arranging (booking, reminders, attendance).
- Stakeholders suggested providing alternatives to short-notice clinic cancellations and clear communication policies.
- Involving parents in booking and utilizing text message reminders were key suggestions.
Conclusions:
- Congruent recommendations emerged across all stakeholder groups.
- Many identified challenges have potential solutions.
- Further research and quality improvement initiatives are needed to implement and evaluate these recommendations.
Background:
Stakeholders can provide valuable input to improve scheduling paediatric ambulatory clinic appointments, a complex process that requires effective planning and communication between parents, administrative staff and clinicians. The purpose of our study was to characterize recommendations from parents, administrative staff and clinicians to improve paediatric ambulatory appointment scheduling.
Methods:
Conducted between February 2018 and January 2019, this qualitative study was guided by qualitative description. Data collection was completed using focus groups with three stakeholder groups: parents, administrative staff and clinicians. Participants provided recommendations to optimize paediatric ambulatory appointment scheduling at the Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Focus group data were transcribed verbatim and analysed using manifest inductive content analysis.
Results:
Forty-six participants (mean age: 42.7; 87% female) participated in 12 focus groups. Parents (n = 11), administrative staff (n = 22) and clinicians (n = 13) made recommendations that were organized into two categories: appointment triaging and arranging. Triaging recommendations were related to appointment availability (e.g. providing alternatives to cancelling clinics with short notice) and waitlist management (e.g. developing clear and consistent policies regarding information flow and communication between clinics and administrative staff). Appointment arranging recommendations referred to booking (e.g. directly involving parents in the booking process), reminders (e.g. using text message reminders) and attendance (e.g. providing parents with a single point of contact who can provide the correct information about late and cancellation policies). Recommendations were similar across stakeholder groups.
Conclusion:
Our findings showed congruent recommendations across stakeholder groups to address challenges with scheduling ambulatory appointments, many of which have the potential to be modified. Experimental research and quality improvement initiatives are needed to determine the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of stakeholder recommendations to improve triaging and scheduling paediatric ambulatory appointments.
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