Do appointment reminders work?

Appointment systems in general practice. Do patients like them, and how do they affect work load?

Text Message Reminders Increase Appointment Adherence in a Pediatric Clinic: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background. High no-show rates can burden clinic productivity and affect patient care. Although multiple studies have shown that text messages improve appointment adherence, very little research has focused on low-income and predominantly African American populations in resident clinic settings. Objectives. To determine whether incorporating a text message reminder reduces the no-show rate at a...

Impact of appointment reminders on vaccination coverage at an urban clinic.

OBJECTIVE To test if appointment reminders blinded to immunization status improve kept-appointment and vaccination coverage rates. Design. Controlled trial. SETTING Pediatric clinic serving a low-income community in New York City. INTERVENTION Children ages 4 through 18 months (n = 1273) scheduled sequentially for clinic appointments were systematically assigned to 1 of 4 study groups: cont...

Stating Appointment Costs in SMS Reminders Reduces Missed Hospital Appointments: Findings from Two Randomised Controlled Trials

BACKGROUND Missed hospital appointments are a major cause of inefficiency worldwide. Healthcare providers are increasingly using Short Message Service reminders to reduce 'Did Not Attend' (DNA) rates. Systematic reviews show that sending such reminders is effective, but there is no evidence on whether their impact is affected by their content. Accordingly, we undertook two randomised controlled...

PREVENTION IN PEDIATRIC CARE Impact of Appointment Reminders on Vaccination Coverage at an Urban Clinic

Objective. To test if appointment reminders blinded to immunization status improve kept-appointment and vaccination coverage rates. Design. Controlled trial. Setting. Pediatric clinic serving a low-income community in New York City. Intervention. Children ages 4 through 18 months (n 5 1273) scheduled sequentially for clinic appointments were systematically assigned to 1 of 4 study groups: contr...