Bedside Notes: A Multicenter Trial to Improve Family Clinical Note Access and Outcomes for Hospitalized Children

What this Trial Is About

This research aims to evaluate whether giving parents access to their hospitalized child's medical notes on a bedside tablet helps increase their involvement in care and allows them to identify safety concerns. The study focuses on hospitalized children under 12 years old and investigates how improved note access affects parent-reported safety and overall hospital experience. This multisite randomized controlled trial addresses the gap where less than 10% of parents currently access inpatient clinical notes during hospitalization. Parents will be randomly assigned to one of two groups: one group will receive the Bedside Notes intervention, providing real-time access to inpatient notes on a hospital-owned bedside tablet along with a notes orientation video. The other group will receive usual care, which means they will not have access to a tablet for viewing their child's medical notes in the hospital. This intervention is designed to help parents better engage with their child's care by using technology. Participants will be involved during their child's hospital stay, typically lasting 2 to 7 days. Researchers will collect data through surveys, interviews, and electronic health record audits to measure the number of notes accessed, parent-reported safety concerns, hospital experience, changes in parent activation, and anxiety levels from baseline to discharge. The study aims to improve family engagement and safety in pediatric inpatient care by assessing these outcomes and understanding barriers to using this technology.

A Trial to Improve Family Clinical Note Access and Outcomes for Hospitalized Children