A Survey of Return Visits to the Pediatric Emergency Department

Abstract

The most commonly reported reasons for pediatric return visits were continued symptoms and lack of illness understanding. We plan to use these data to develop targeted interventions to decrease the perceived need for return visits.

Early unplanned return visits to a pediatric emergency department in Israel

“…However, another study reported that 94% of returned caregivers were satisfied with the first ED physician encounter . A recent study reported that caregivers of children who were admitted on the return visit were more dissatisfied with care at the first visit than caregivers of children who were discharged on the return visit . Our study shows different results; we found similar scores between patients who were discharged on the return visit and patients who were hospitalized in all PSQ items (Table ).…”

“…These unanticipated revisits are stressful for patients and parents; they increase overcrowding and health‐care costs, and add to the already high workload of ED staff . The most commonly reported reasons for ED revisits are continued symptoms, natural progression of illness, lack of understanding of illness, lack of follow‐up plans, and lack of personalized discharge instructions …”

“…Dissatisfaction with the initial ED visit among parents of EURV patients may have an influence on the decision to revisit the ED. In children, parents’ satisfaction with the first ED visit has not been studied thoroughly and the few studies that have investigated it have reported conflicting data …”

“…[1][2][3] The most commonly reported reasons for ED revisits are continued symptoms, natural progression of illness, lack of understanding of illness, lack of follow-up plans, and lack of personalized discharge instructions. [1][2][3][4][5] Parents' satisfaction with ED care has been shown to be associated with adherence to treatment. Factors such as wait time, pain management, and physicians' / nurses' teamwork were shown to be associated with improved parental satisfaction.…”

“…In children, parents' satisfaction with the first ED visit has not been studied thoroughly and the few studies that have investigated it have reported conflicting data. [3][4][5] The aim of this study was to evaluate comprehensively parent's satisfaction of EURV patients with the first visit in the pediatric ED.…”