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

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate patient experience in the Manitoba pediatric emergency department to identify and address existing gaps in care. METHOD: 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. RESULTS: 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?" CONCLUSIONS: 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.