Text Message Appointment Reminders

NCT ID: NCT01676337

Last Updated: 2015-05-27

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 374 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2012-07-31
• Study Completion Date: 2013-07-31

Brief Summary

This project proposes administer and evaluate via a randomized controlled trail a text message-based appointment reminder system to promote attendance at clinic appointments after ED discharge.

Detailed Description

Failure to attend scheduled clinic appointments causes inefficiency within the healthcare system, and frequently results in ED visits for non-emergent conditions such as medication refills, ambulatory care sensitive conditions which are potentially preventable with appropriate outpatient management (e.g. foot infections). Many patients seen in the ED report they were unaware of past or future outpatient appointments for which they had been scheduled. These patients are clearly in need of primary care, yet fail to attend 30% of all scheduled outpatient appointments. Patients most often report that they failed to attend scheduled appointments as a result of forgetfulness or confusion regarding dates, times, or locations. National data confirmed by our previous work in the LAC+USC ED demonstrates that > 80% of this population reports using a text-capable mobile device. The investigators believe a system of text message appointment reminders has tremendous potential to facilitate clinic attendance among these patients in desperate need of primary care.

Conditions

Text Messages; Emergencies

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Control

Patients randomized to the control arm will not receive text message reminder regarding their upcoming appointment.

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Text message appointment reminder

Patients randomized to the intervention arm will receive text message appointment reminders including date, time, and location seven, three and one day prior to their scheduled clinic appointments. All appointment reminders will then be delivered automatically.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Text message appointment reminder

Intervention Type: OTHER

Patients randomized to the intervention arm will receive text message appointment reminders including date, time, and location seven, three and one day prior to their scheduled clinic appointments. All appointment reminders will then be delivered automatically.

Interventions

Text message appointment reminder

Patients randomized to the intervention arm will receive text message appointment reminders including date, time, and location seven, three and one day prior to their scheduled clinic appointments. All appointment reminders will then be delivered automatically.

Intervention Type: OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Age >18
• Able to provide consent and read in English or Spanish
• Have a text message capable mobile phone
• Know how to receive text messages
• Have upcoming scheduled clinic appointments

Exclusion Criteria

• Unable to provide written informed consent
• Incarcerated
• Critically ill
• Altered Mental Status

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

University of Southern California

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Sanjay Arora

MD

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Sanjay Arora, MD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Southern California

Michael Menchine, MD, MPH

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of California

Locations

University of Southern California

Los Angeles, California, United States

Countries

United States

References

Arora S, Burner E, Terp S, Nok Lam C, Nercisian A, Bhatt V, Menchine M. Improving attendance at post-emergency department follow-up via automated text message appointment reminders: a randomized controlled trial. Acad Emerg Med. 2015 Jan;22(1):31-7. doi: 10.1111/acem.12503. Epub 2014 Nov 11.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 25388481 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

HS-12-00239

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id