Lieser Tyler, Huang Yungui, Sezgin Emre
The Abigail Wexner Research Institute, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, United States.
JMIR Pediatr Parent. 2022 Oct 6;5(4):e38940. doi: 10.2196/38940.
Pediatric hospitals in the United States are increasingly leveraging patient-facing mobile apps as their digital front doors for patients, families, and caretakers. These mobile health apps are sanctioned by pediatric hospitals to inform the public or populations about pediatric care to provide individualized information, to enhance communication, and to improve patient experience. Yet the functionalities and user feedback of these hospital mobile apps have not been systematically investigated.
Our aim was to understand the current state of hospital-owned mobile apps provided by large pediatric hospitals, comparatively analyze and report the services provided, and identify potential gaps to inform developers and providers. The American Hospital Association defines large hospitals as those having a bed count of more than 400.
We conducted a systematic search on Google Play and Apple App Store to identify all hospital-owned mobile apps from the large pediatric hospitals included in our review. Our inclusion criteria were (1) apps provided by large pediatric hospitals; (2) hospital-owned apps available in Apple App Store and Google Play; and (3) apps that are provided for general populations. Specialty apps that serve specific user groups or populations focusing on education, telehealth, specific conditions or procedures, or apps intended for research or clinician use were excluded. The features and functionality of the included apps were examined.
Of the 16 pediatric hospitals included in our review, 4 (25%) had no general patient-facing apps, 4 (25%) had one app, and 8 (50%) had more than one app available on Google Play or Apple App Store. The 12 hospitals with at least one mobile app had a combined total of 72 apps. Of these 72 apps, 61 (85%) were considered specialty and were excluded from our review, leaving a total of 11 (15%) apps to analyze. Among the 11 apps analyzed, the most common feature was appointment scheduling or reminder (n=9, 82%). Doctor search (n=8, 73%) and patient resources (n=8, 73%) were the second most common, followed by payment, billing, or claims (n=7, 64%), patient portal integration (n=6, 55%), personal health management (n=6, 55%), hospital way finding (n=5, 45%), message a provider (n=4, 36%), urgent care wait times (n=4, 36%), video chat (n=4, 36%), and health information access (n=4, 36%). Parking information (n=3, 27%) was the least common.
Out of the 16 pediatric hospitals identified for our review, 75% (n=12) offer mobile apps. Based on the most common features, these apps were intended to help improve accessibility for patients and families in terms of finding providers, scheduling appointments, and accessing patient resources. We believe the findings will inform pediatric hospital administrators, developers, and other stakeholders to improve app feature offerings and increase their impact on service accessibility and patient experience.
美国的儿科医院越来越多地利用面向患者的移动应用程序作为其面向患者、家庭和护理人员的数字前门。这些移动健康应用程序得到儿科医院的认可，用于向公众或特定人群提供儿科护理信息，以提供个性化信息、加强沟通并改善患者体验。然而，这些医院移动应用程序的功能和用户反馈尚未得到系统研究。
我们的目标是了解大型儿科医院提供的医院自有移动应用程序的现状，比较分析并报告所提供的服务，识别潜在差距，为开发者和提供者提供参考。美国医院协会将大型医院定义为床位超过400张的医院。
我们在谷歌应用商店和苹果应用商店进行了系统搜索，以识别我们综述中纳入的大型儿科医院提供的所有医院自有移动应用程序。我们的纳入标准为：（1）大型儿科医院提供的应用程序；（2）在苹果应用商店和谷歌应用商店中可用的医院自有应用程序；（3）面向普通人群的应用程序。为特定用户群体或人群提供服务、专注于教育、远程医疗、特定病症或程序的专科应用程序，或用于研究或临床医生使用的应用程序被排除在外。对纳入应用程序的功能和特性进行了检查。
在我们综述中纳入的16家儿科医院中，4家（25%）没有面向普通患者的应用程序，4家（25%）有1个应用程序，8家（50%）在谷歌应用商店或苹果应用商店有多个应用程序。拥有至少一个移动应用程序的12家医院共有72个应用程序。在这72个应用程序中，61个（85%）被视为专科应用程序，被排除在我们的综述之外，剩下11个（15%）应用程序进行分析。在分析的11个应用程序中，最常见的功能是预约安排或提醒（n = 9，82%）。医生搜索（n = 8，73%）和患者资源（n = 8，73%）是第二常见的功能，其次是支付、计费或理赔（n = 7，64%）、患者门户集成（n = 6，55%）、个人健康管理（n = 6，55%）、医院导航（n = 5，45%）、向提供者发送消息（n = 4，36%）、紧急护理等待时间（n = 4，36%）、视频聊天（n = 4，36%）和健康信息获取（n = 4，36%）。停车信息（n = 3，27%）是最不常见的功能。
在我们确定进行综述的16家儿科医院中，75%（n = 12）提供移动应用程序。基于最常见的功能，这些应用程序旨在帮助患者和家庭在寻找医疗服务提供者、安排预约和获取患者资源方面提高可及性。我们相信这些发现将为儿科医院管理人员、开发者和其他利益相关者提供参考，以改进应用程序功能并增强其对服务可及性和患者体验的影响。
