A Quality Improvement Project to Improve After-visit Summary Patient Instructions in a Pediatric Multidisciplinary...

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Healthcare
• Health Communication
• Medical Informatics

Background:

• Multidisciplinary clinics coordinate care for children with medical complexity, but caregivers often face information overload.
• After-visit summaries (AVS) can improve communication by detailing visit information and recommendations.
• Optimization of AVS patient instructions within multidisciplinary settings is understudied.

Purpose of the Study:

• To enhance the quality of patient instructions within a multidisciplinary pediatric neuromuscular program.
• To improve post-visit communication between caregivers and healthcare providers.

Main Methods:

• A multidisciplinary team developed a key driver diagram to guide improvements.
• Implemented standardized electronic medical record text shortcuts for consistent AVS instructions.
• Collected caregiver feedback via surveys and interviews to reduce medical jargon by 25%.

Main Results:

• After-visit summary (AVS) instruction completion rates significantly increased from 39.4% to 85.0%.
• Provider education initiatives reduced the average number of jargon terms in patient instructions from 8.2 to 3.9.

Conclusions:

• Provider education and caregiver feedback are effective in improving AVS compliance and reducing medical jargon.
• Interventions targeting AVS patient instructions can enhance communication strategies for complex pediatric medical visits.