Improving Patient Care Experience in the Pediatric Emergency Department in Manitoba, Canada

To evaluate patient experience in the Manitoba pediatric emergency department to identify and address existing gaps in care.

Design: A serial cross-sectional study.Setting: The pediatric ED in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, from May to September 2022 and May to September 2023.Participants: Surveys were completed by parents or caregivers on behalf of patients aged 0 to <8 years, and by patients themselves if aged 8 to 17 years. A total of 175 respondents were collected during the first survey wave and 182 during the second, yielding 357 participants overall.Interventions: A supply cart with materials were provided in the waiting room and video-recorded instructions on patients' phones, printed and written discharge notes, and posters reminding staff of key discharge information were incorporated.Primary outcome measure: Proportion of survey respondents with satisfactory response "yes, definitely" to key patient experience questions in the Patient-Reported Experience Measure survey.

Of a total of 357 respondents, 340 completed the survey with a completion rate of 95% and were included in the analysis. Respondents aged 30 to 39 years represented the largest age group with (64, 37%) in the first versus second (44, 26%) wave of survey sampling. Following the interventions to address the gaps in waiting room and discharge care, a most statistically significant improvement was observed among those who responded to the question "Was there everything you needed while you waited?," 18.2%, 95% CI: 5.8%-30.5%. Although no statistically significant difference was found in responses related to the discharge experience, a marginal improvement of 4.3%, 95% CI -5.0% to -13.5%, was observed among respondents to the question "Did a member of staff tell you when your child could restart their usual activities?"

These data suggest gaps in waiting room and discharge instruction care in the pediatric emergency department. Targeted measures could lead to improvements in waiting room care.