Utilizing the phone appointment for adolescent follow-up

Area of Science:

• Adolescent Medicine
• Healthcare Management
• Telehealth

Background:

• Follow-up care is crucial for adolescent patients in university hospital settings.
• Traditional follow-up methods can be challenging for adolescents.
• Telephone appointments offer a potential supplementary approach to enhance patient engagement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the compliance rates of adolescent girls with scheduled telephone appointments.
• To identify factors influencing the success of telephone appointments in adolescent healthcare.
• To assess the utility of telephone appointments as an adjunct to standard follow-up care.

Main Methods:

• A study involving 50 young women receiving 126 telephone appointments as supplementary care.
• Tracking call adherence, timeliness, and appointment completion rates.
• Analyzing compliance based on prior clinic visit frequency, appointment scheduling method, and time interval to appointment.

Main Results:

• 64% of calls were placed on the correct day, with 89% within 20 minutes of the scheduled time.
• Patients with fewer clinic visits (1-2) had higher adherence (75%) than those with many visits (11+; 47%).
• Appointments scheduled in-clinic (67%) were kept more often than those made over the phone (50%); shorter intervals (≤7 days) also improved adherence (69% vs. 48%).

Conclusions:

• Adolescent girls demonstrate a notable level of compliance with telephone appointments.
• Telephone appointments are a viable and potentially effective supplementary method for monitoring adolescent patients.
• Optimizing scheduling and considering patient visit history can enhance the effectiveness of telehealth in adolescent care.