An Assessment of Medical Assistants’ Knowledge in Pediatric Endocrinology: A Quality Improvement Project

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this DNP project was to implement a quality improvement (QI) pediatric endocrinology education project, specifically for medical assistants (MA) triaging calls in an outpatient pediatric endocrinology primary care clinic in Salt Lake City, Utah in order to improve their triage skills, knowledge, and workflow; in order to provide medical assistants with standardized methods to determine urgency of calls, appropriately document calls, and enhance workflow. The goal was to create an education presentation specific to pediatric endocrinology population in this geographic region utilizing adult learning theory. Design: A pre- and post-test quantitative design was utilized. A second post-test was obtained one month following intervention to assess for sustainability. Setting/Participants: Primary Children’s Hospital/University of Utah Pediatric Endocrinology Outpatient Clinic in Salt Lake City, Utah was setting for this project. The projected sample size was 10 medical assistants, however, only eight subjects completed initial pre-test and six completed each subsequent post-test. A total of 20 calls were evaluated pre- and post-intervention in assessment of workflow. Results: Mean score improved from 20.13 on pre-test to 22.83 on each post-test. Evaluation of call logs found that medical assistants asked more follow-up questions following intervention (p=.006). Knowledge scores between pre-test to initial post-test (p= .13), pre-test to follow-up post-test (p= .58), and initial post-test to follow-up post-test (p= .17) were not statistically significant. Management scores between the pre-test to initial post-test (p= 1), the pre-test to follow-up post-test (p= .81), and initial post-test to follow-up post-test (p= .87) were not statistically significant. Documentation scores between the pre-test to initial post-test (p= .40), the pre-test to follow-up post-test (p= .17), and initial post-test to follow-up post-test (p= .40) were not statistically significant. Finally, urgency scores between the pre-test to initial post-test (p= .47), pre-test to follow-up post-test (p= .40), and initial post-test to follow-up post-test (p= .92) were also not statistically significant. Conclusion: Implementation of an educational intervention did improve overall test scores. While not statistically significant, the improvement was of clinical significance. Importantly, medical assistants recognized when additional information was needed and asked follow-up questions at initial point of contact.