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Published on: August 1, 2019
Parental satisfaction with paediatric care with and without the support of an eHealth device: a quasi-experimental
Sarah Foldager Jeppesen1, Rúnar Vilhjálmsson1,2, Helene Åvik Persson3
1Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
Insights
Parents reported high satisfaction with healthcare, with or without eHealth devices. eHealth support did not significantly alter overall satisfaction, though differences emerged between mothers and fathers regarding communication and inclusion.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Surgery
- Neonatal Care
- Health Services Research
- eHealth
Background:
- Post-discharge care for children is challenging for parents.
- Parental satisfaction with healthcare services indicates quality of care.
- eHealth devices are increasingly used to support parent-hospital communication.
Purpose of the Study:
- To describe parental satisfaction with healthcare.
- To compare satisfaction between sociodemographic groups.
- To assess the impact of eHealth devices on satisfaction after pediatric or neonatal surgery discharge.
Main Methods:
- Quasi-experimental study in southern Sweden (2019-2021).
- Assessed satisfaction using the PedsQL Healthcare Satisfaction Generic Module.
- Enrolled 70 parents: 36 in the eHealth intervention group, 34 in the control group.
Main Results:
- Parents reported high overall satisfaction with healthcare and its various dimensions.
- High satisfaction was reported with the use of eHealth devices.
- eHealth support did not correlate with higher or lower satisfaction levels.
- Significant differences were found between mothers and fathers in satisfaction with communication and inclusion.
Conclusions:
- Parents expressed high satisfaction with healthcare, irrespective of eHealth device use.
- eHealth can potentially alleviate parental distress and improve care satisfaction post-discharge.
- Further research is needed to evaluate eHealth interventions for pediatric and neonatal care.
Background:
The period after a child is discharged from hospital is generally described as challenging for the parents. Their satisfaction with the health services received is an important indicator of the quality of care. eHealth devices are increasingly used in health care to support communication with parents. Differences in levels of parental satisfaction by modality of provided care or by parental background are largely unknown. This study aimed to describe satisfaction with health care between sociodemographic groups of parents, who either received or did not receive an eHealth device for communication between parents and hospital staff as a supplement to routine care after a child's discharge from neonatal or paediatric surgery departments.
Methods:
Data from a quasi-experimental study was collected in the south of Sweden, between 2019 and 2021. The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory™ (PedsQL) Healthcare Satisfaction Generic Module was used to assess the parents' satisfaction with different dimensions of health care. Seventy parents of children hospitalized in a neonatal or a paediatric surgery department were enrolled in intervention (eHealth device, n = 36) and control (no eHealth device, n = 34) groups.
Results:
The parents reported high overall satisfaction with the health care provided and were also highly satisfied within different dimensions of care. Moreover, they reported high satisfaction with using an eHealth device, although having support from the eHealth device was related to neither higher nor lower levels of satisfaction with care. There was a significant difference between fathers and mothers in the multivariate sub-analysis in certain instances regarding satisfaction with communication and the level of inclusion.
Conclusions:
Parents were very satisfied with the health care provided, whether or not they received eHealth. Further research looking at groups with and without the support of an eHealth device is required to further develop future paediatric and neonatal care interventions. Communication and support through eHealth can be a tool to alleviate the distress parents experience after their child's hospital admission, accommodate the family's transfer to home, and increase satisfaction with care, but it needs to be evaluated before being implemented.
Trial Registration:
Clinical Trials NCT04150120, first registration 4/11/2019.
