300 - Improving Adolescent-Centered Care through a Targeted Faculty Educational Program

The provision of high-quality, confidential adolescent care presents challenges for the busy, general pediatric clinic.  Nationally, screening rates for adolescent risky behaviors remain low (below 50%), and the majority of adolescents do not spend time confidential time with their provider.

Objective:

To provide targeted faculty education to improve adolescent-centered care in a large, academic pediatric medical home.

Design/Methods: To investigate and address issues of adolescent care, we formed an interdisciplinary team composed of two physicians, one advanced practice provider, one nurse, one behavioral health navigator, one psychologist, and one medical assistant.  Between October 2020 and December 2021, we delivered six, 15-minute educational sessions to both faculty and staff at the clinic’s monthly staff meetings and six, one-hour educational sessions to faculty at the faculty monthly meetings.  We offered a MOC Part IV activity focused on confidentiality for adolescent patients.  Common workflow concerns for adolescent visits were evaluated and improved through the development of standardized clinic processes and templates.  We conducted pre- and post-surveys of faculty members to assess their knowledge of and attitudes toward confidential adolescent care.

Results: Following the efforts above, providers reported increased frequency of explaining confidentiality to their adolescent patients (57% pre, 77% post); offering screening for sexually transmitted infections (71% pre, 92% post); and talking privately with their adolescent patients (89% pre, 92% post).  Clinicians reported increased confidence in discussing sensitive topics with their adolescent patients (68% pre, 92% post) and in counseling adolescent patients on behavior change (75% pre, 92% post). 

Conclusion(s): Targeted faculty education and optimization of clinical workflows increased the frequency of adolescent patients receiving confidential time with providers and improved provider confidence in adolescent-centered care and offering appropriate screening.