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Electronic Communication Between Children's Caregivers and Health Care Teams: Scoping Review on Parental Caregiver's
Mary Jo Gamper1, Rebecca Singer Cohen1, Maryam Esperanza Razaz1
1Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, 525 N Wolfe St, Baltimore, MD, 21205, United States, 1 (410) 955-4766.
Insights
Pediatric caregivers are satisfied with electronic communication (e-communication) with healthcare teams. However, research has not focused on improving the quality of this important pediatric care tool.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Healthcare
- Health Informatics
- Patient-Provider Communication
Background:
- Electronic communication (e-communication) is increasingly used to supplement in-person medical visits for children.
- Little is known about the quality of e-communication in pediatric healthcare settings.
- E-communication includes patient portals, secure messaging, SMS text messaging, and email.
Purpose of the Study:
- To summarize literature on pediatric caregivers' experiences and perspectives regarding e-communication with their child's healthcare team.
- To identify how e-communication has been optimized to enhance pediatric patient care.
Main Methods:
- A scoping review was conducted using the Arksey and O'Malley framework.
- Searched PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, and Web of Science (2013-2023) for studies on caregiver experiences with pediatric e-communication.
- Included 23 articles after a two-step screening process, excluding systematic reviews and telemedicine.
Main Results:
- The review included 23 articles: 11 quantitative, 7 qualitative, and 5 mixed methods.
- Patient portals were the most common e-communication method (n=17).
- Most parents (19 studies) reported positive experiences and a desire for e-communication.
Conclusions:
- Caregiver satisfaction and desire for e-communication in healthcare are strongly supported by the literature.
- A critical gap exists as no studies have intentionally focused on improving the quality of pediatric e-communication.
Background:
Asynchronous communication via electronic modes (e-communication), including patient portals, secure messaging services, SMS text messaging, and email, is increasingly used to supplement synchronous face-to-face medical visits; however, little is known about its quality in pediatric settings.
Objective:
This review aimed to summarize contemporary literature on pediatric caregivers' experiences with and perspectives of e-communication with their child's health care team to identify how e-communication has been optimized to improve patient care.
Methods:
A scoping review following the Arksey and O'Malley methodological framework searched PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, and Web of Science using terms such as "Electronic Health Records" and "Communication" from 2013 to 2023 that discussed caregiver experiences and perspectives of e-communication with their child's health care provider. Studies were excluded if they were abstracts, non-English papers, nonscientific papers, systematic reviews, or quality improvement initiatives, or pertained to synchronous telemedicine. We conducted a two-step screening process by scanning the title and abstract and reviewing the full text by two independent screeners to confirm eligibility. From an initial 903 articles identified via the database search, 23 articles fulfilled all the inclusion criteria and are included in this review.
Results:
Of the 23 articles meeting the inclusion criteria, 11 used quantitative methods, 7 used qualitative methods, and 5 used mixed methods. The caregiver sample sizes ranged from 51 to 3339 in the quantitative studies and 8 to 36 in the qualitative and mixed methods studies. A majority (n=17) used the patient portal that was self-categorized by the study. Secure messaging through a portal or other mobile health app was used in 26% (n=6) of the studies, while nonsecure messaging outside of the portal was used 17% (n=4) of the time and email was used 33.3% (n=8) of the time. In 19 of the studies, parents reported positive experiences with and a desire for e-communication methods.
Conclusions:
The literature overwhelmingly supported caregiver satisfaction with and desire for e-communication in health care, but no literature intentionally studied how to improve the quality of e-communication, which is a critical gap to address.
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