The impact of short message service text messages sent as appointment reminders to patients' cell phones at outpatient clinics in São Paulo, Brazil.
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Date
2010-02-04
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Abstract
OBJECTIVE Nonattendance for appointments remains a challenge to health care managers and providers The objective of this article is to present the results of a study on the impact of appointment reminders sent as short message service text messages to patients cell phones on nonattendance rates at outpatient clinics in S o Paulo Brazil DESIGN Data were collected on scheduled appointments in four medical clinics using Clinic Manager or Clinic Web systems that can send automated messages to patients Data on appointment attendance were collected from these systems MEASUREMENTS More than 29 000 appointments were scheduled between July 1 2007 and May 31 2008 and for 7890 of them a text message reminder was sent to the patient s cell phone The rates of nonattendance were compared between those who were sent and those who were not sent a text message as an appointment reminder RESULTS The nonattendance reduction rates for appointments at the four outpatient clinics studied were 0 82 p 590 3 55 p 009 5 75 p 022 and 14 49 p Under 001 CONCLUSION The study results indicate that sending appointment reminders as text messages to patients cell phones is an effective strategy to reduce nonattendance rates When patients attend their appointments the facility providing care and the patients receiving uninterrupted care benefit