Caregiver Perspectives and Preferences Regarding Timely Access to Unscheduled Acute Care in Paediatric Urgent Care Centers: A Qualitative Evaluation of Save My Spot Tool

Aim: Explore caregiver (i.e., person who provides direct care for a child and was present at the time of their medical visit) perspectives and preferences regarding timely access to unscheduled acute care as well as barriers and facilitators of the use of an online appointment tool (i.e., Save My Spot) in a satellite children's hospital five urgent care centers in the United States.

Design: A descriptive qualitative interview study.

Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 49 caregivers in a private room, in person and in conjunction with medical visits from June 2023 to the end of August 2023 after obtaining institutional ethical approvals. We employed deductive and inductive content analysis and used the MAXQDA data analysis tool.

Results: Average caregiver age was 37 years. Most of the caregivers were female, white, and non-Hispanic and had low income. We identified three categories: (a) Caregiver preferences for using the Save My Spot online appointment tool and their reasons for buy-in, (b) ways of promoting the Save My Spot tool and (c) enhancing the accessibility of the Save My Spot tool.

Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that when introduced successfully, caregivers adopt an online appointment tool and find it efficient in minimising wait times. Various approaches (e.g., social media, billboards) can be used to promote the tool to increase timely access to care.

Impact: This study provides valuable insights into the utilisation of an online appointment tool in the two hospital-based and three stand-alone neighbourhood urgent care centers of a large urban children's hospital. Future studies capturing different tools and populations are recommended to gain diverse understanding.

Reporting methods: The study was reported following the Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research.

Patient or public contribution: Caregivers provided their perspectives and the Paediatric Emergency Medicine Disparities Working Group contributed to the interpretation of the study findings.