Does making newborn follow-up appointments from the hospital improve compliance?

Area of Science:

• Pediatrics
• Healthcare Management
• Public Health

Background:

• Ensuring timely follow-up care for newborns is crucial for infant health and development.
• Patient compliance with initial newborn appointments can be a challenge, impacting continuity of care.
• Proactive appointment scheduling prior to hospital discharge may address compliance barriers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of a system for scheduling the first newborn follow-up appointments before hospital discharge.
• To determine if pre-discharge appointment scheduling improves patient compliance with initial newborn visits.

Main Methods:

• A prospective randomized study involving 328 healthy, full-term newborns.
• Participants were allocated to either a control group or an intervention group.
• Compliance with the first newborn appointment and insurance status were compared between groups, accounting for practice clustering.

Main Results:

• The intervention group showed significantly higher compliance with the first newborn appointment (94.2%) compared to the control group (84.9%), with p=0.0062.
• Improved compliance was observed in privately insured patients (96.5% intervention vs. 89.1% control, p=0.0263).
• A notable increase in compliance was seen in Medicaid and uninsured patients (90.2% intervention vs. 64.7% control, p=0.0245).

Conclusions:

• Arranging newborn follow-up appointments prior to hospital discharge is a cost-effective intervention.
• This strategy significantly enhances patient compliance with the critical first newborn visit.
• The intervention demonstrates particular benefit for vulnerable patient populations, including those with Medicaid or no insurance.