Background:
The Colorado Pediatric Stroke Program provides comprehensive, multidisciplinary care for pediatric stroke patients and their families. The team, which includes dedicated inpatient and outpatient nurse coordinators, instituted a plan to support the transition from the inpatient to outpatient setting.
Purpose:
A survey was used to determine family preparedness for clinic and ease of scheduling their appointment. The data were collected before and after enacting remote scheduling and telehealth visits due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods:
Our team provided educational materials and an outpatient appointment time to families at time of discharge starting in 2019. In January 2020, the stroke clinic staff surveyed parents and guardians about their preparedness for clinic. Telehealth encounters were initiated due to COVID-19 in March 2020, with staff conducting RedCAP surveys by telephone. The survey measured several components of visit preparedness and satisfaction including: understanding of diagnosis, reason for referral prior to clinic visit, familiarity with the stroke team prior to clinic visit, and ease in appointment scheduling. We compared results before and after March 2020 via two-tailed chi-square analysis or two-tailed Fischer’s test.
Results:
Prior to telehealth, families favorably reported responses with 92% (47/52) knowing the reason for referral, 86% (42/49) receiving educational material prior to clinic, and 84% (42/50) reporting familiarity with our team. All patients (50/50) reported that scheduling was easy. Only scheduling ease had a significant change during the pandemic, with 11% (2/11) of patients reporting difficulties with scheduling after starting telehealth (
P=0.03
).
Conclusion:
Childhood stroke is a disease with significant morbidity and mortality, requiring close follow-up care. Families report robust preparedness for clinic after the implementation of a comprehensive discharge plan. Although small numbers, remote scheduling and telehealth transition may present previously unseen barriers to scheduling during the pandemic. During abrupt changes in clinical operations additional scheduling resources may be needed to ensure continuity of care.
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