Pediatric injury survivorship and the Pediatric Trauma Quality of Life Clinic: A year in review.

PURPOSE: Survivorship, optimization of physical, mental, and emotional health, and quality of life after injury, is critical. We developed the first ever Pediatric Trauma Quality of Life (pTQOL) Clinic, focused on pediatric firearm injury. Our goal was to review the first-year experience of this clinic.

METHODS

Patient demographic and injury characteristics were captured for the first year of the clinic from the institutional trauma registry. Additional data were obtained from chart review about index hospitalizations and clinic visits. Reflections on pTQOL experiences were elicited from team members, patients, and families.

RESULTS

A total of 126 pTQOL encounters were scheduled for 86 patients. Among those, 57 were completed by 49 patients. The median age at injury was 16.39 years, ranging from 3.07 to 17.98 years. Most patients were male firearm injured youth. Services seen during clinic visits included General Surgery, Psychology, Physical Therapy, Social Work, Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Programs, and Orthopedic Surgery. pTQOL visits led to 56 new referrals for 29 patients in a variety of specialties with bullet excisions scheduled for 4 patients. pTQOL team members, patients, and families reported high levels of satisfaction with the clinic.

CONCLUSION

The first ever pTQOL Clinic was successful in its first year. pTQOL provided an opportunity for patients to engage with multiple services in one appointment, including Social Work and Psychology, which are often limited in the post discharge setting, and led to numerous new referrals. Additional process improvements are underway in response to variable appointment completion rates and identified challenges.