The methodology proposed in this poster is designed for a large-scale dissertation project focused on exploring interdisciplinary teaming in pediatric healthcare settings. A pilot study conducted in the spring of 2025 (manuscript in progress) examined caregiver satisfaction surveys at a children's hospital in a major metropolitan area in the Northeast United States. This pilot study informed the current methodology.

Surveys were administered by a hospital contractor and were de-identified before acquisition by the current authors. These surveys were previously validated and are currently implemented across healthcare systems in the U.S. Two specific survey questions, both of which utilize a Likert-scale response format, were identified as particularly relevant to interdisciplinary teaming: "Care provider's efforts to include you in decisions about your child's care" and "How well the staff worked together to care for your child."

Caregiver responses from two clinics at the pilot site, both of which specialize in supports for autistic children, but which differed in degree of professional disciplinary diversity were collected. Findings from the pilot study have shaped the methodology for the current dissertation project, which uses an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design. This design involves collecting the same surveys from additional clinics across the United States for comparison, again across different team science domains. After conducting the quantitative analyses, healthcare providers from each clinic will be interviewed using a case study design to identify the specific features of each clinic that correspond to its average satisfaction ratings on the target questions. That is, which factors are related to the clinic's implementation of interdisciplinary care, also referred to as a "team-based model of care," whether reported upon positively or negatively in survey responses.

Caregiver and patient descriptions of clinical operations will also be collected using a case study design. These descriptions will then be compared with the descriptions of providers and then integrated with the quantitative results. The aim of this methodology is to reveal (1) whether the current survey captures facets of interdisciplinary care, (2) how providers and caregivers/patients describe interdisciplinary care and make sense of the survey's results, and (3) whether the current survey requires alterations based on its ability to capture these factors.