Text Message Appointment Reminders

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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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
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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.

Official Title
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A Text-message Appointment Reminder System to Improve Patient Adherence With Outpatient Follow-up Appointments

Conditions
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Text Messages, Emergencies

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: Text message appointment reminder


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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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

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| No Intervention: Control<br>Patients randomized to the control arm will not receive text message reminder regarding their upcoming appointment. | |
| Experimental: Text message appointment reminder<br>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. | Other: Text message appointment reminder<br>* 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.<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Adherence with scheduled appointments within 30 days post-enrollment |  | 30 days | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Adherence with scheduled appointments within 6 months post-enrollment |  | 6 months | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Primary care, Text messaging, Clinic appointment attendance, Emergency department