Faculty Collaboration Database

The impact of a brief expectation survey on parental satisfaction in the pediatric emergency department. Acad Emerg Med 2006 Dec;13(12):1280-7

Date

11/14/2006

Pubmed ID

17099193

DOI

10.1197/j.aem.2006.06.059

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-33751315994 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   28 Citations

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To determine the effect of physician knowledge of parental expectations on satisfaction with emergency department (ED) care.

METHODS: This was a prospective, controlled, interventional trial involving parents of children presenting to a children's hospital ED. Parents completed an expectation survey on arrival, which was either immediately placed back in the enrollment envelope (control) or shown to the physician caring for the child (intervention). The physician was instructed to initial the expectation survey to acknowledge receipt of the survey. Parents then completed a satisfaction survey at discharge. The primary outcomes were differences in satisfaction with physician review of the expectation survey, as measured by 1) parental ratings of overall care and 2) their willingness to recommend the ED to others. A third (baseline) group completed only a satisfaction survey at discharge.

RESULTS: A total of 614 (66%) of the 930 enrolled parents completed the study. Intention-to-treat analysis did not show a significant increase in parental satisfaction ratings for either overall care or recommend the ED; however, only 42% of the intervention group surveys had documented physician review. When these initialed surveys were compared with the control group in a per-protocol analysis, there was a significant improvement in parental satisfaction. There were no differences between the control and baseline groups, indicating no effect of the expectation survey completion on satisfaction.

CONCLUSIONS: Physician knowledge of written parental expectations may improve parental satisfaction during an ED visit. Further work is needed to overcome the barriers to physician review of the expectation survey to maximize parent satisfaction.

Author List

Spahr CD, Flugstad NA, Brousseau DC

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Case-Control Studies
Emergency Service, Hospital
Hospitals, Pediatric
Humans
Parents
Patient Satisfaction
Physician-Patient Relations