Introduction: Discharge communication in the pediatric emergency department (ED) is an important aspect of successful transition home for patients and families. The content, process, and pattern of discharge communication in a pediatric ED encounter has yet to be comprehensively explored. The objective of this study was to identify and characterize elements and patterns of discharge communication occurring during pediatric ED visits between health care providers (HCPs) and families. Methods: We analyzed real time video observations (N = 53) of children (0-18) presenting to two Canadian pediatric EDs with fever or minor head injury. We used a revised version of an existing coding scheme, PEDICSv2, to code all encounters. PEDICSv2 includes 32 elements capturing discharge communication. Inter-rater reliability was established with a second coder. Descriptive statistics reflecting the rates of delivery of each communication content element was reported to assess repetition at four stages of the visit (introduction/planning, actions/interventions, diagnosis/home management plan and summary/conclusion). Communication content was analyzed to depict behaviors of individual HCPs and the total communication delivered to the patient and caregiver by the healthcare team. Results: Results show 55.6% of families were asked to repeat their main concern by multiple HCPs during their ED visit. However, only 14.8% of families had comprehension of delivered discharge information assessed by more than one HCP. When involved in care, physicians were the most likely HCP to perform a comprehension assessment. Most of the communication delivered by nursing staff were elements involved in the introduction/planning and action/intervention stages of the visit. Conclusion: Findings indicate that most repetition occurs while eliciting a main concern during the introduction and planning stage of a pediatric ED encounter. In contrast, communication elements focusing on understanding the home management plan are less likely to be repeated by multiple HCPs. Future work focusing on structuring team workflow to minimize repetition during the introduction and planning stage may allow for clearer discharge teaching and more frequent comprehension assessment.
Professional Interpreter Use and Discharge Communication in the Pediatric Emergency Department
