None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
Failure to attend appointments is a problem for health services. A high proportion of patients who do not attend (DNA) means that clinical and administrative staff are not efficiently employed, and results in longer waiting times for other patients that may increase the risk of further health problems. A recent audit of Eastern Health physiotherapy outpatient clinics found a DNA rate of 8.1%, representing more than 125 missed appointments per month. A review of the literature indicates providing reminders can be an effective method of reducing DNA rates for health services, and a couple of recent observational studies have provided preliminary evidence that sending patients reminders via the short message service (SMS) on mobile phones can be an effective way of reducing DNA rates. Therefore, the aim of this trial is to find out if sending SMS reminders to patients with appointments at physiotherapy outpatient clinics is an effective way of reducing DNA rates. Using a randomised controlled trial at 4 Eastern Health physiotherapy outpatient clinics, patients will be randomly allocated either to the group that will receive an SMS reminder or the group that receives usual care. The primary outcome is DNA rate, and secondary outcomes are cancellation rates and an initial estimation of costs in implementing the SMS reminder system.
Interventions
Short message service reminder for appointment in physiotherapy outpatients. Patients allocated to the short message service reminder group will be sent a reminder 2 days before their appointment if the appointment is made more than 3 days prior, or the day before the appointment if the appointment was made 2 days ago. It is expected that that intervention will be applied over a duration of 2 months.
Sponsors
Nicholas Taylor
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Educational / counselling / training
Masking
Blinded (masking used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Particpants will be included if they; 1. Have a physiotherapy appointment in an acute physiotherapy outpatient clinic at Angliss, Maroondah or Box Hill Hospitals or at the Yarra Valley Community Health Service 2. Provide a mobile phone number 3. Aged at least 18 years 4. Able to give verbal consent to participate
Exclusion criteria
Participants will be excluded if: 1. They are attending sub-acute ambulatory care services or group programs 2. Cannot provide a mobile phone number through which they can be contacted 3. Have been given an appointment on the same day on which they make the appointment 4. Have already participated in the trial by being allocated for a previous appointment during the trial 5. Aged under 18 years 6. Not able to give verbal consent to participate
Outcome results
None listed