(A137) Patient Satisfaction with Multidisciplinary Cleft Clinic

Introduction: Multidisciplinary cleft and craniofacial clinics have grown in popularity with patients with congenital or acquired craniofacial abnormalities. This study sought to investigate the qualities of a successful clinic that maximizes patient satisfaction.

Methods: A survey was given to patients and families that attend an academic Cleft and Craniofacial Program, whose team consists of otolaryngologists, plastic surgeons, geneticists/genetic counselors and speech language pathologists, over an eight-month period. The survey contained thirteen questions that fell into three themes: Clinic Logistics, Team Dynamic, and Patient Comfort and Comprehension. Positive, negative, and no responses were recorded and analyzed using a bivariate analysis.

Results: From the 60 surveys collected, the responses were overwhelmingly positive. 93% (n=56) of respondents felt the clinic was worth their time and 96% (n=58) felt comfortable asking the team questions. The most requested change (n=7) was having providers from different specialties in the patient room at the same time, which patients felt made asking questions easier and prevented lag time between seeing providers. Ten percent (n=6) of respondents were not satisfied with or did not receive printed handouts explaining the condition for which they were seen in the clinic.

Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that to maximize multidisciplinary clinic patient satisfaction, providers should consider being in the same room to improve the dialogue between both patients and providers, as well as to potentially reduce time in the clinic for each individual

patient. Further, physicians should monitor patient comprehension closely and utilize printed handouts/other aids to explain and improve health literacy.