Satisfaction with care and decision making among parents/caregivers in the pediatric intensive care unit: a comparison between English-speaking whites and Latinos

David Epstein; Jennifer B Unger; Beatriz Ornelas; Jennifer C Chang; Barry P Markovitz; Peter M Dodek; Daren K Heyland; Jeffrey I Gold

doi:10.1016/j.jcrc.2014.11.009

Satisfaction with care and decision making among parents/caregivers in the pediatric intensive care unit: a comparison between English-speaking whites and Latinos

J Crit Care. 2015 Apr;30(2):236-41. doi: 10.1016/j.jcrc.2014.11.009. Epub 2014 Dec 2.

Authors

David Epstein¹, Jennifer B Unger², Beatriz Ornelas³, Jennifer C Chang³, Barry P Markovitz³, Peter M Dodek⁴, Daren K Heyland⁵, Jeffrey I Gold⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Electronic address: depstein@chla.usc.edu.
² Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine at University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
³ Department of Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁴ Center for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences and Division of Critical Care Medicine, St Paul's Hospital and University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
⁵ Department of Medicine, Kingston General Hospital and Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
⁶ Departments of Anesthesiology and Pediatrics, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

PMID: 25541103
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrc.2014.11.009

Abstract

Purpose: Because of previously documented health care disparities, we hypothesized that English-speaking Latino parents/caregivers would be less satisfied with care and decision making than English-speaking non-Latino white (NLW) parents/caregivers.

Materials and methods: An intensive care unit (ICU) family satisfaction survey, Family Satisfaction in the Intensive Care Unit Survey (pediatric, 24 question version), was completed by English-speaking parents/caregivers of children in a cardiothoracic ICU at a university-affiliated children's hospital in 2011. English-speaking NLW and Latino parents/caregivers of patients, younger than 18 years, admitted to the ICU were approached to participate on hospital day 3 or 4 if they were at the bedside for greater than or equal to 2 days. Analysis of variance, χ(2), and Student t tests were used. Cronbach αs were calculated.

Results: Fifty parents/caregivers completed the survey in each group. Latino parents/caregivers were younger, more often mothers born outside the United States, more likely to have government insurance or no insurance, and had less education and income. There were no differences between the groups' mean overall satisfaction scores (92.6 ± 8.3 and 93.0 ± 7.1, respectively; P = .80). The Family Satisfaction in the Intensive Care Unit Survey (pediatric, 24 question version) showed high internal consistency reliability (α = .95 and .91 for NLW and Latino groups, respectively).

Conclusions: No disparities in ICU satisfaction with care and decision making between English-speaking NLW and Latino parents/caregivers were found.

Keywords: Critical care; Critically ill children; Healthcare disparities; Parent satisfaction; Pediatric.

Publication types

Comparative Study

MeSH terms

Adult
Caregivers
Child
Child, Preschool
Decision Making*
Female
Healthcare Disparities
Hispanic or Latino*
Hospitalization
Humans
Intensive Care Units, Pediatric*
Male
Parents*
Personal Satisfaction*
Quality of Health Care
Reproducibility of Results
United States
White People*