Evaluation and Intervention to Improve Show Rates in a Pediatric Neurology Clinic

Patient access is one of the greatest challenges in health care today. Pediatric neurology is a highly specialized field with a significant shortage of providers, resulting in appointment wait times that may extend for several months. Missed appointments in which the patient does not cancel or reschedule in advance, referred to as "no-shows," contribute to further delays in access as those visit slots go unfilled.

We evaluated patient risk factors for appointment nonadherence in a pediatric neurology clinic and implemented an intervention for patients identified as being at highest risk for no-show. The intervention consisted of clinic schedulers directly calling the patient's parent or guardian to remind them of the upcoming appointment. Families were given the option to keep, cancel, or reschedule their appointment.

Implementation of the targeted reminder intervention improved appointment show rates among high-risk patients, increased clinic access, and resulted in a 32% increase in clinic revenue.

Targeted, direct phone reminders for high-risk pediatric neurology patients significantly reduced no-show rates, improved overall patient access, and increased clinic revenue. Longer-term implementation and further evaluation through multisite studies across diverse health care settings are warranted to confirm effectiveness and assess broader applicability of this intervention.