Abstract
Electronic appointment reminder systems are increasingly used across health systems. However, their association with patients' waiting times for their appointments, a measure of timely access to care, has yet to be assessed. To assess the associations between the introduction of an electronic appointment reminder system and the number of days patients had to wait from appointment booking to appointment completion in patients in the Veterans Affairs Health System. Cohort study of patients who completed appointments from January 1, 2018, to October 13, 2018, inclusive in all 130 Veterans Affairs (VA) health centers in the US. The study population comprised a census of all patients who received care at any VA health center during the period of the study for outpatient, procedural, rehabilitation, or radiology services. Data were analyzed from May 15, 2021, to December 15, 2021. Phased introduction of an electronic appointment reminder system (VEText) in 6 waves spread across the study period. The unit of observation in this study was a completed appointment made by any such patients. Observations were excluded if the appointment was booked before but completed after the exposure, or if data were duplicated, missing, or incomplete. For each completed appointment, the number of days between which the appointment was booked and when it was completed. The number of observations after exclusion comprised 39.5 million completed appointments from 5.1 million patients (91.1% male) with a mean (SD) age of 62.57 (16.24) years. The adoption of VEText was associated with an estimated reduction in patient waiting time by a mean of 6.51 days (95% CI, 5.51-7.52 days). Adoption of VEText was also associated with an increase of 8.54 (95% CI, 7.65-9.44) days of additional waiting per incomplete booking. Results of this study suggest that appointment reminder systems may be associated with decreases in the mean number of days patients in the VA system have to wait for their appointments but can potentially lengthen waiting times for patients who miss their bookings. Further study is warranted to assess whether these findings may be generalizable to other populations.
Highlights
Electronic appointment reminder systems are increasingly being used across health systems in the US and around the world
The adoption of VEText was associated with an estimated reduction in patient waiting time by a mean of 6.51 days
Adoption of VEText was associated with an increase of 8.54 days of additional waiting per incomplete booking
Summary
Electronic appointment reminder systems are increasingly being used across health systems in the US and around the world. Waiting times capture patients’ delay in receiving care and are an important measure of a health care delivery system’s responsiveness They indirectly measure patient access, an indicator that is known to be associated with clinical outcomes.[7,8,9]. Some studies have found that reminder systems, implemented either through telephone calls or cellphone text messages, may be associated with higher rates of appointment cancellation.[10,11,12,13] Increased rates of cancellation mean that patients (intentionally or otherwise) may experience delay in receipt of their care, and that congestion of clinic waiting lists and patient waiting times may increase
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
