Patient mobile telephone ‘text’ reminder: a novel way to reduce non-attendance at the ENT out-patient clinic

Geraghty, Michael T.; Glynn, Fergal; Amin, Muhammad; Kinsella, John

doi:10.1017/s0022215107007906

Cited by 121 publications

(97 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…57,72,79 There are few figures to show the failure rates of sending SMS reminders to patients. In an Irish audit of non-attendance rate at ear, nose and throat outpatients clinics following the introduction of a text reminder system, Geraghty et al 94 reported that only 2-3% of people failed to receive their text message reminder as a result of incorrect data entry. Similarly, in an Australian study 95 to evaluate the operational and financial efficacy of sending SMS text message reminders to the mobile telephones of parents of young children with scheduled outpatient clinic appointments, only 0.4% of recipients contacted the outpatient services stating that they had no knowledge of the scheduled appointment.…”

Section: Short Message Service Remindersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…as paediatric. In six papers 94,95,98,106,108,109 in this systematic review, 44 the SMS reminders targeted patients attending paediatrics clinics. In paediatric settings, the SMS reminder was sent to the young patient or their parent/ carer; in the non-randomised study by Stott and Gray, 109 SMS reminders were sent directly to the young people.…”

Section: Proposition F: Distal/proxy Individual Attributesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Targeting the Use of Reminders and Notifications for Uptake by Populations (TURNUP): a systematic review and evidence synthesis

McLean

Gee

Booth

et al. 2014

Health Services and Delivery Research

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BackgroundMissed appointments are an avoidable cost and a resource inefficiency that impact on the health of the patient and treatment outcomes. Health-care services are increasingly utilising reminder systems to counter these negative effects.ObjectivesThis project explores the differential effect of reminder systems for different segments of the population for improving attendance, cancellation and rescheduling of appointments.DesignThree inter-related reviews of quantitative and qualitative evidence relating to theoretical explanations for appointment behaviour (review 1), the effectiveness of different approaches to reminding patients to attend health service appointments (review 2) and factors likely to influence non-attendance (review 3).Data sourcesDatabase searches were conducted on Allied and Complementary Medicine, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature Plus with Full Text, The Cochrane Library, EMBASE (via NHS Evidence from 1 January 2000 to January/February 2012), Health Management Information Consortium database, Institute of Electrical and Electronics EngineersXplore, The King’s Fund Library Catalogue, Maternity and Infant Care, MEDLINE, Physiotherapy Evidence Database, PsycINFO, SPORTDiscus and Web of Science from 1 January 2000 to January/February 2012. Supplementary screening of references of included studies was conducted to identify additional potentially relevant studies. Conceptual papers were identified for review 1, randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and systematic reviews for review 2 and a range of quantitative and qualitative research designs for review 3.MethodsWe conducted three inter-related reviews of quantitative and qualitative evidence, involving a review of conceptual frameworks of reminder systems and adherence behaviours, a review of the reminder effectiveness literature and a review informed by realist principles to explain the contexts and mechanisms that explain reminder effectiveness. A preliminary conceptual framework was developed to show how reminder systems work, for whom they work and in which circumstances. Six themes emerged that potentially influence the effectiveness of the reminder or whether or not patients would attend their appointment, namely the reminder–patient interaction, reminder accessibility, health-care settings, wider social issues, cancellation and rebookings, and distal/proxy attributes. Standardised review methods were used to investigate the effectiveness of reminders to promote attendance, cancellation or rebooking across all outpatient settings. Finally, a review informed by realist principles was undertaken, using the conceptual framework to explain the context and mechanisms that influence how reminders support attendance, cancellation and rebooking.ResultsA total of 466 papers relating to 463 studies were identified for reviews 2 and 3. Findings from 31 RCTs and 11 separate systematic reviews (review 2 only) revealed that reminder systems are consistently effective at reducing non-attendance at appointments, regardless of health-care setting or patient subgroups. Simple reminders that provide details of timing and location of appointments are effective for increasing attendance at appointments. Reminders that provide additional information over and above the date, time and location of the appointment (‘reminder plus’) may be more effective than simple reminders at reducing non-attendance and may be particularly useful for first appointments and screening appointments; simple reminders may be appropriate thereafter for most patients the majority of the time. There was strong evidence that the timing of reminders, between 1 and 7 days prior to the appointment, has no effect on attendance; substantial numbers of patients do not receive their reminder; reminders promote cancellation of appointments; inadequate structural factors prevent patients from cancelling appointments; and few studies investigated factors that influence the effectiveness of reminder systems for population subgroups.LimitationsGenerally speaking, the systematic review method seeks to provide a precise answer to a tightly focused question, for which there is a high degree of homogeneity within the studies. A wide range of population types, intervention, comparison and outcomes is included within the RCTs we identified. However, use of this wider approach offers greater analytical capability in terms of understanding contextual and mechanistic factors that would not have been evident in a more narrowly focused review and increases confidence that the findings will have relevance in a wide range of service settings.ConclusionsSimple reminders or ‘reminder plus’ should be sent to all patients in the absence of any clear contraindication. Other reminder alternatives may be relevant for key groups of patients: those from a deprived background, ethnic minorities, substance abusers and those with comorbidities and/or illnesses. We are developing a practice guideline that may help managers to further tailor their reminder systems for their service and client groups. We recommend future research activities in three main areas. First, more studies should routinely consider the potential for differential effects of reminder systems between patient groups in order to identify any inequalities and remedies. Second, ‘reminder plus’ systems appear promising, but there is a need for further research to understand how they influence attendance behaviour. Third, further research is required to identify strategies to ‘optimise’ reminder systems and compare performance with current approaches.FundingThe National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research programme.

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Section: Short Message Service Remindersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Proposition F: Distal/proxy Individual Attributesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Targeting the Use of Reminders and Notifications for Uptake by Populations (TURNUP): a systematic review and evidence synthesis

McLean

Gee

Booth

et al. 2014

Health Services and Delivery Research

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show abstract

“…Liu et al (18) reported that telephone-based re-education the day before colonoscopy improved the quality of bowel preparation and the polyp detection rate. Several previous studies found that telephone and SMS reminders were associated with an improvement in outpatient attendance (19)(20)(21)(22)(23). Therefore, in patients with prolonged waiting times to colonoscopy, reminders may also be helpful for improving the quality of bowel preparation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Shorter waiting times from education to colonoscopy can improve the quality of bowel preparation: A randomized controlled trial

Liu

Kim

Seo

et al. 2018

Turk J Gastroenterol

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“…Providers using health IT to connect with their patients may improve overall patient-provider communication and also help to promote patient autonomy and empower patients' with management of their own health. Providers using health IT tools to communicate with patients have reported improved medication adherence and appointment compliance for various ailments (4,(23)(24)(25)(26). Whether health IT applications are preferred by patients and whether a broader disease population can effectively use and benefit from such devices remain unclear.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Usability of a CKD Educational Website Targeted to Patients and Their Family Members

Diamantidis

Zuckerman

Fink

et al. 2012

Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology

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SummaryBackground and objectives Web-based technology is critical to the future of healthcare. As part of the Safe Kidney Care cohort study evaluating patient safety in CKD, this study determined how effectively a representative sample of patients with CKD or family members could interpret and use the Safe Kidney Care website (www. safekidneycare.org), an informational website on safety in CKD.Design, setting, participants, & measurements Between November of 2011 and January of 2012, persons with CKD or their family members underwent formal usability testing administered by a single interviewer with a second recording observer. Each participant was independently provided a list of 21 tasks to complete, with each task rated as either easily completed/noncritical error or critical error (user cannot complete the task without significant interviewer intervention).Results Twelve participants completed formal usability testing. Median completion time for all tasks was 17.5 minutes (range=10-44 minutes). In total, 10 participants had greater than or equal to one critical error. There were 55 critical errors in 252 tasks (22%), with the highest proportion of critical errors occurring when participants were asked to find information on treatments that may damage kidneys, find the website on the internet, increase font size, and scroll to the bottom of the webpage. Participants were generally satisfied with the content and usability of the website.Conclusions Web-based educational materials for patients with CKD should target a wide range of computer literacy levels and anticipate variability in competency in use of the computer and internet.

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Patient mobile telephone ‘text’ reminder: a novel way to reduce non-attendance at the ENT out-patient clinic

Abstract: Sending text message reminders is a simple and cost-effective way to improve non-attendance at ENT out-patient clinics.

Cited by 121 publications

References 10 publications

Targeting the Use of Reminders and Notifications for Uptake by Populations (TURNUP): a systematic review and evidence synthesis

Targeting the Use of Reminders and Notifications for Uptake by Populations (TURNUP): a systematic review and evidence synthesis

Shorter waiting times from education to colonoscopy can improve the quality of bowel preparation: A randomized controlled trial

Usability of a CKD Educational Website Targeted to Patients and Their Family Members

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