This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Patient feedback, local approach reduces appointment no-shows

Add topic to email alerts

Receive an email when new articles are posted on

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .

Subscribe

Added to email alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

Back to Healio

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Back to Healio

Rheumatologists at the University of California, San Francisco, significantly reduced the rate of missed appointments at their clinic by analyzing the reminder system in place, surveying patients and developing a language-appropriate reminder system based on patient feedback and the most commonly spoken languages in the region, according to recently presented study results.

The researchers studied the reminder system in place using the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Model for Improvement and the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) method. The methods and frequency of patient appointment reminders were identified.

“While it was assumed that most patients received both letter and phone reminders for upcoming appointments, our survey [of 50 patients] indicated otherwise,” the researchers wrote.

The results showed 60.3% of surveyed patients received a letter while 27.6% received a telephone call, 13.8% received both and 22.4% did not receive a reminder.

A survey of the patients’ preferences revealed 68% preferred a future letter, 54% preferred a reminder by telephone and 25.9% preferred a text message appointment reminder.

A multilingual (English, Spanish, Cantonese, and Mandarin) team was assembled to deliver language-appropriate reminder calls and scaled over time to include all patients who spoke either English, Spanish or Chinese. Changes to the reminder system were tested using PDSA cycles, and improvements were made in the delivery of telephone reminder calls to patients. The average no-show rate of 24% in 2014 was reduced to 11.6% between February and May of 2015 among 331 patients.

“Coordination across clinic staff to form a multilingual team that delivered language-appropriate reminder calls measurably reduced the no-show rate in our county hospital rheumatology clinic,” the researchers concluded. – by Shirley Pulawski

Reference:

Beach S, et al. Paper #2499. Presented at: American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting; Nov. 7-11, 2015; San Francisco.

Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.