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- Presentation
Little Things That Make a Big Impact: Improving Pediatric Dermatology Patient Experience
Description
The talk focuses on practical, small changes that can greatly improve the pediatric dermatology patient experience and satisfaction scores. It emphasizes that poor reviews often stem less from medical care and more from issues like wait times, access, communication, and the overall clinic environment. Strategies to reduce frustration include proactively informing families about delays, standardizing staff scripts, using whiteboards or real-time screens to show expected wait times, offering later or after-school appointments, providing televisits for follow-up care, and building strong relationships with referring providers to triage urgent cases sooner. The speaker also highlights creating a child-friendly space with welcoming front-desk interactions, stickers or small prizes, thoughtful room setup, and staff trained to gather key information such as language needs, weight, and accompanying caregiver. For physician-patient interaction, the advice includes greeting the child directly, making personal connections, using interpreters when needed, performing thorough and sensitive exams, sitting down during counseling, providing written and picture-based instructions, and practicing shared decision-making that accounts for family preferences, social determinants of health, and emotional support needs. For procedures, the speaker recommends careful pre-planning, team huddles, involving the family in positioning and consent, and giving the child a sense of control to build trust and reduce fear.
View moreConclusions
- Patient experience in pediatric dermatology is driven less by medical expertise alone and more by small operational and communication details that shape how families feel throughout the visit.
- Wait time is the strongest determinant of satisfaction, and even when delays are unavoidable, proactively informing families and standardizing staff communication can substantially reduce dissatisfaction.
- Visible, real-time wait-time updates and scripted front-desk explanations are practical low- and high-tech ways to ease anxiety and improve trust in busy clinics.
- Improving access through after-school slots, flexible scheduling, telehealth follow-ups, urgent add-on triage, and stronger referral relationships helps families feel cared for and seen more promptly.
- A pediatric-friendly environment matters, and thoughtful touches like welcoming staff, child-appropriate spaces, stickers, prizes, and support resources can improve the overall clinic experience.
- Physician interaction remains central, and simple habits such as greeting the child directly, using understandable language, sitting down, and providing written instructions can meaningfully improve rapport and comprehension.
- More complex encounters require shared decision-making, attention to family dynamics, social barriers, and emotional support so that treatment plans are realistic and acceptable to the family.
- Procedures go better when teams pre-plan, huddle, and use comfort positioning and patient empowerment to reduce fear and increase cooperation.
- Overall, the presentation argues that small, consistent, patient-centered adjustments across wait time, access, environment, and clinician behavior can lead to better satisfaction scores and better care experiences for children and families.
- Meliha Skaljic, Andrea McGinnis, and Jenna L. Streicher. "Comfort positioning during procedures in pediatric dermatology." Pediatric Procedural Dermatology / Wiley.#10.1111/pde.14089