Behavioral Health Appointment Attendance Following Implementation of an Automated Appointment Reminder System

Abstract

This project explored the effect of an automated appointment reminder system (texts/e-mails/telephone calls) on patient attendance at behavioral health appointments in a federally qualified health care agency in Texas. Appointment reminder systems have been shown to improve attendance rates in behavioral health (Clouse, Williams, & Harmon, 2017; Gajwani, 2014; Molfenter, 2013; Whisenhunt, 2014). It was expected that behavioral appointment attendance which in this agency has been historically low, would increase following implementation of an automated appointment reminder system. A retrospective electronic health record review was completed to compare behavioral health appointment attendance rates before and after implementation of an automated appointment reminder system. Data analysis revealed that no-show rates for behavioral health appointments in the previous appointment reminder system (telephone call reminders) and the recently implemented automated appointment reminder system (texts/e-mails/telephone calls) were comparable with rates of 19.4% and 20.0%, respectively. The difference between the rates was not statistically significant suggesting that the automated appointment reminder system was not effective in improving patient attendance at behavioral health appointments.