The effect of SMS (text message) reminders on attendance at a community adult mental health service clinic: do SMS reminders really increase attendance?

Moran, L Ruiz; O’Loughlin, Kieran; Kelly, Brendan D.

doi:10.1007/s11845-017-1710-0

Cited by 11 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…To improve the cost-effectiveness of appointment reminder services, some investigators explored the value of SMS to personal mobile phones, and this strategy has been shown to have the potential in improving attendance rate in outpatient clinics. [22][23][24] In contrast to these data and the results from the current study, a previous randomized controlled trial did not demonstrate a statistically significant advantage of SMS reminders over standard care in the setting of outpatient colonoscopy. 28 The potential explanation for the difference in results are twofold.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

“…21 SMS is a programmable service that can generate reminders automatically, further increasing its costeffectiveness. This strategy has been shown to reduce missed outpatient clinic appointment, [22][23][24] but evidence in the setting of outpatient colonoscopy services is lacking. We set to conduct a prospective randomized controlled trial to evaluate the value of SMS in the quality improvement of outpatient colonoscopy services.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Short Message Service reminders reduce outpatient colonoscopy nonattendance rate: A randomized controlled study

Lam

Hui

Sia

et al. 2020

J of Gastro and Hepatol

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Background and Aim: Nonattendance of outpatient colonoscopy leads to inefficient use of health-care resources. We aimed to study the effectiveness of using Short Message Service (SMS) reminder prior in patients scheduled for outpatient colonoscopy on their nonattendance rate. Methods: Patients who scheduled for an outpatient colonoscopy and had access of SMS were recruited from three clinics in Hong Kong. Patients were randomized to SMS group and standard care (SC) group. All patients were given a written appointment slip on the booking date. In addition, patients in the SMS group received an SMS reminder 7-10 days before their colonoscopy appointment. Patients' demographics, attendance, colonoscopy completion, and bowel preparation quality were recorded. Logistic regression was performed to identify predictors of nonattendance. Results: From November 2013 to October 2019, a total of 2225 eligible patients were recruited. A total of 1079 patients were allocated to the SMS group and 1146 to the SC group. The nonattendance rate of patients in the SMS group was significantly lower than that in the SC group (8.9% vs 11.9%, P = 0.022). There were no significant differences in their baseline characteristics and colonoscopy completion rate and bowel preparation quality. A trend towards a higher rate of adequate bowel preparation was observed in the SMS group when compared with the SC group (69.9% vs 65.8%, P = 0.053). Independent predictors for nonattendance included younger age, underprivilege, and existing diabetes. Conclusions: An SMS reminder for outpatient colonoscopy is effective in reducing the nonattendance rate and may potentially improve the bowel preparation quality.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Short Message Service reminders reduce outpatient colonoscopy nonattendance rate: A randomized controlled study

Lam

Hui

Sia

et al. 2020

J of Gastro and Hepatol

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“…Patients with a Monday appointment will receive their reminder on the Friday prior to their appointment. Conclusions could not be drawn on the impact of this on patient attendance in our clinic over the study period; however, previous studies have reported on the introduction of such a system 1,11,12 …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…A qualitative analysis of the reasons for failed attendance found that only 23.8% of patients stated they would benefit from an SMS reminder the day before the appointment, 48.3% would prefer a phone call, 25.9% an appointment card, and only 2% would prefer email reminders 11 . Another study of the efficacy of SMS reminder systems found that failed attendance rates decreased from 22.2% to 13.9% in the first 6 months after implementation; however, after 2 and a half years since its introduction, failed attendance rates increased again to 19.3%, and no significant difference in attendance rates were found between patients who did and those who did not receive the SMS 12 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…11 Another study of the efficacy of SMS reminder systems found that failed attendance rates decreased from 22.2% to 13.9% in the first 6 months after implementation; however, after 2 and a half years since its introduction, failed attendance rates increased again to 19.3%, and no significant difference in attendance rates were found between patients who did and those who did not receive the SMS. 12 Strategies to overcome patient failed attendance have been widely evaluated. Implementing a failed attendance fee did not significantly reduce failed attendance rates and is ethically questionable in public health care.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Impact of demographics and appointment characteristics on patient attendance in a university dental clinic

White

Butler-Howell

Nadon-Hoysted

et al. 2020

Journal of Dental Education

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Introduction Failed patient attendance in a university dental clinic is detrimental to the student learning experience, the university as a business, and to members of the public awaiting urgent dental treatment. Purpose This study aimed to identify the demographic, appointment characteristics, and time‐related factors associated with patient attendance in a university dental clinic from 2015 to 2019. Methods A 5‐year retrospective analysis was conducted in 2020 on data extracted from the Griffith University Dental Clinic patient management system. Following data cleaning and categorization, the dataset was downloaded into SPSS for statistical analysis. Frequencies, odds ratio, and chi squared were used to determine the demographic and time‐related factors of patients who had completed, cancelled, and failed to attend (FTA) appointments. Results A total of 23.4% of appointments were cancelled, and 6.6% were FTA. Demographics associated with cancellations include females, adults aged 25 to 44, and private paying patients. FTA were higher in young adults aged 19 to 24, low to mid‐range socioeconomic status (SES) and those eligible for publicly funded dental treatment. Mondays and Fridays experienced the greatest number of FTA and cancellations, respectively. Emergency appointments had the greatest attendance rates and endodontic procedures the lowest. Conclusion The loss of clinical teaching hours, resources, and revenue necessitates the implementation of targeted strategies to minimize cancellations and FTA based on demographic and appointment characteristics that may render individual as high risk for failed attendance.

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Association of Use of Electronic Appointment Reminders With Waiting Times in the Veterans Affairs Health System

Zhao

Lim

et al. 2022

JAMA Netw Open

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IMPORTANCE Electronic appointment reminder systems are increasingly used across health systems. However, their association with patients' waiting times for their appointments, a measure of timely access to care, has yet to be assessed. OBJECTIVETo assess the associations between the introduction of an electronic appointment reminder system and the number of days patients had to wait from appointment booking to appointment completion in patients in the Veterans Affairs Health System. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Cohort study of patients who completed appointmentsfrom January 1, 2018, to October 13, 2018, inclusive in all 130 Veterans Affairs (VA) health centers in the US. The study population comprised a census of all patients who received care at any VA health center during the period of the study for outpatient, procedural, rehabilitation, or radiology services.

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The effect of SMS (text message) reminders on attendance at a community adult mental health service clinic: do SMS reminders really increase attendance?

Abstract: The chief value of SMS reminders lies not in reminding patients of appointments but in providing a convenient way to cancel them, thus allowing more appointments to be offered.

Cited by 11 publications

References 9 publications

Short Message Service reminders reduce outpatient colonoscopy nonattendance rate: A randomized controlled study

Short Message Service reminders reduce outpatient colonoscopy nonattendance rate: A randomized controlled study

Impact of demographics and appointment characteristics on patient attendance in a university dental clinic

Association of Use of Electronic Appointment Reminders With Waiting Times in the Veterans Affairs Health System

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