WORKING TO IMPROVE THE PATIENT EXPERIENCE (AL LEND)

01/02/2019


Each year, LEND Trainees at the Civitan-Sparks Clinics in Birmingham, Alabama develop a project that will aid in improving the experience of our patients. As an interdisciplinary clinic, families who come into the Civitan-Sparks Clinics see a wide variety of professionals, including Speech/Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Nutrition, Pediatrics, Audiology, Psychology, and Dental. As such, many parents are unsure of what to expect from a visit with each of these disciplines, particularly when they are new to our clinic. Additionally, while the range of areas of concerns that families come in with is broad, visits to each of our disciplines are largely the same clinic to clinic.

The 2018-2019 LEND trainees have spent the past few months creating one-page family-friendly information sheets with pictures that outline what to expect from visits with each of the disciplines. These information sheets have been placed in each of the observation rooms and posters are also currently being created for the waiting room. By allowing families to have easy access to what to expect from each visit, the children and adolescents we serve will be better prepared.

In the past, the interdisciplinary LEND trainees have created visual schedules that can be individualized for each patient, accumulated a list of local restaurants who were provided information about Autism Spectrum Disorders and related disorders, and developed a social story which is available both online and in our waiting room, to name a few. With the addition of information sheets regarding what to expect from both the child's and parent's perspective for each visit, it is the trainees' hope that families will find our clinic to be even more accessible.