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Group visits in the pediatric heart transplant outpatient clinic
Author(s) -
Hollander Seth A.,
McDonald Nancy,
Lee Donna,
May Lindsay J.,
Doan Lan N.,
Kaufman Beth D.,
Rosenthal David N.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
pediatric transplantation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.457
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1399-3046
pISSN - 1397-3142
DOI - 10.1111/petr.12574
Subject(s) - medicine , heart transplantation , outpatient visits , outpatient clinic , pediatrics , emergency medicine , transplantation , intensive care medicine , health care , economics , economic growth
The “GVM” has emerged as an alternative to traditional individualized appointments in the ambulatory care setting. We hypothesized that group visits could successfully be utilized in a PH tx clinic. Seven patients, ages 1–18 yr old, and their families participated in a total of 11 group visits in lieu of individualized appointments. Patients were divided into two groups based on whether they were greater or less than one yr post‐transplant. Patient/provider satisfaction, medication adherence, and content retention were ascertained via questionnaires and free‐response tests. Total clinic throughput time, including per‐patient clinic utilization time, was compared to historical data. Six of seven patients completed the study with one dropout. Overall satisfaction ratings were 3.98 of 4 with all patients reporting that they would “strongly recommend” group visits to others. Health information retention tests demonstrated improvement between pre‐ and post‐tests in eight of nine (89%) of the group visits. Overall clinic utilization decreased by nearly 50% while providing 70 min of face‐to‐face time with the provider. Medication adherence neared 100% for all patients. The GVM can be successfully applied to the PH tx population with high patient and provider satisfaction, more face‐to‐face time, excellent content retention, and greatly improved clinic efficiency.