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A survey of children's reported experience in outpatient pediatric ophthalmology clinics.

PURPOSE
Patient-reported experience measures influence contemporary health care. To monitor the experience of children in health care, some inherent difficulties must be overcome. The authors sampled the opinion of children in outpatient pediatric ophthalmology clinics.


METHODS
Questionnaires were designed and distributed to children ages 2 to 16 years in pediatric ophthalmology clinics over three sites.


RESULTS
Ninety-three forms were completed by children ages 2 to 16 years. The average duration of clinic visits was 69 minutes. Children commented that helpful staff improved their experience. Waiting times and boredom were negative issues raised consistently. Children particularly enjoyed visual acuity testing, which they also described as the most challenging aspect of the clinic. On average, patients found eye drops only mildly painful.


CONCLUSIONS
Various areas for service improvement were identified from this study, including the value of keeping children occupied and minimizing waiting times. It was not clear to children which healthcare professionals they were seeing and this was an area of confusion. Adolescent patients felt the clinic was too childish. Sampling children's opinions through questionnaires had some limitations in terms of some inconsistencies of response, incomplete questionnaires, and multiple answers, but overall provided useful information specific to the clinics.