TABLE 4.

Representative Parent Quotes of Usefulness and Suggestions for Improvement of Each Inpatient Portal Feature

Inpatient Portal Feature	Why Was It Useful?	What Could Be Done to Improve This Feature?
Home screen: vital signs, discharge date, and problem and/or medication list	“…being able to check where his blood pressures were and where his heart rate has been.” (Parent D)	“The discharge date wasn’t always updated.” (Parent A)
		“Maybe if there was a subcategory that said this med was changed, if there’s a dosage change, or if there’s a new medication.” (Parent D)
Happening soon: child’s daily schedule	“I like seeing the medication schedule...if I go outside or go for a walk and I’m not always sure if he got his medication, I can check on here and see if they did it.” (Parent B)	“It would also be nice to see when he’s scheduled for physical therapy and when the resident is going to be coming by, what needs to be done for discharge and what are our goals for the day.” (Parent A)
		“[I would like to see] the whole day, the whole week in one picture.” (Parent F)
Taking care of me: photographs and names of the care team	“It’s overwhelming to see so many people at once, and it was nice to take a look back later and say, ‘Okay, I remember.’” (Parent I)	“It would be nice to see maybe if there was two tabs…see who is taking care but who had taken care of me in the past.” (Parent A)
I would like: requests for nonurgent items	“…to be able to have a way to communicate with the nurses in a non-emergent way, I think it’s nice.” (Parent L)	“I don’t know what happens to this. Does this buzz my nurse who’s connected to me? Maybe having that better clarification…Where does it go?.” (Parent A)
Note to self: parent text, audio, and video notes	“I was putting stuff in there to bring up during the rounds.” (Parent E)	“It would be helpful to see this note to self in outpatient MyChart.” (Parent E)
My health: laboratory test result trends (released every 30 min, 7 am–11 pm)	“I find [it] useful that I don’t have to ask the nurses or bother the nurses about how his labs are…” (Parent J)	“I think it could be better with the linked information for, like, what exactly a test does…” (Parent D)
To learn: e-books of admission information	“There were quite a few [education materials].” (Parent D)	“I don’t have enough time to read the long article, but if there’s any like abstract or simple things…” (Parent F)
KidsHealth: KidsHeath Web site	“...it gave, you know, nice basic information, you know, so, and that's good.” (Parent B)	No improvements described by parents: “Nope. It’s perfectly good the way it is.” (Parent J)
Messaging: secure, nonurgent messages for the care team	“[It is useful] to message the doctor, and then when he gets the time, he can see it and then message back.” (Parent E)	“…it seemed like it took a long time for [staff] to reply. Maybe have an auto-response when if, like, they’re going to come talk to you in person.” (Parent D)

e-book, electronic book; lab, laboratory test results; med, medication.