Multidisciplinary outpatient rounds: A new approach to optimizing pediatric burn care

Inpatient multidisciplinary rounds are required by the American Burn Association (ABA) for institutional verification, while outpatient care is not as well defined. Recognizing the importance of cross-team communication, our center instituted weekly outpatient multidisciplinary rounds to improve collaboration, care delivery, and identification of patient needs. These rounds included physical therapists (PT), occupational therapists (OT), social workers, burn clinic nurses, psychologists, advanced practice providers, and surgeons. Patients' injuries, resources, therapy needs, and care plans were reviewed. A database was created to record the care interventions (CIs) made during these rounds. CIs were categorized into 3 domains: PT/OT, psychosocial needs, and coordination of care (COC). Clinic no-show rates and time from compression garment initial order to delivery were also recorded. A retrospective review of outpatients treated between January 2023 to October 2024 was conducted, encompassing 2048 patients during the study period. We identified 215 patients required some type of CI with a total of 401 CIs delivered. 183 (46%) CIs involved assigning additional PT/OT services, 131 (33%) addressed at least one psychosocial need, and 87 (21%) involved COC. The no-show rate during the study period was 13.4%, which was improved but not statistically significant when compared to previous years. The average time from garment order to delivery was 32.4 days. With the implementation of multidisciplinary outpatient burn rounds, we better identified patients' needs prior to the visit and provided informed and coordinated specialized care.