Related Experiment Videos
Patient-specific reminder letters and pediatric well-child-care show rates
J R Campbell1, P G Szilagyi, L E Rodewald
1Department of Pediatrics, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, NY.
Insights
Postcard reminders effectively increase well-child appointment attendance. Patient-specific letters do not offer additional benefits over postcards for improving show rates in pediatric care.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Health Services Research
Background:
- Well-child visits are crucial for child development and preventative care.
- Missed appointments (no-shows) negatively impact healthcare resource allocation and patient outcomes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare the effectiveness of patient-specific letters versus postcard reminders in improving well-child appointment show rates.
- To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of reminder strategies for pediatric appointments.
Main Methods:
- A prospective clinical trial randomized 288 newborns into three groups: patient-specific letter, postcard reminder, or no reminder (control).
- Show rates for scheduled well-child appointments were tracked for each group.
- Demographic data were analyzed to ensure group comparability.
Main Results:
- Show rates were 75.0% for the letter group, 73.7% for the postcard group, and 67.5% for the control group.
- No statistically significant difference was found between the letter and postcard groups.
- Both reminder groups showed significantly higher show rates than the control group (P < .05).
Conclusions:
- Postcard reminders are a cost-effective strategy to improve well-child visit attendance.
- Patient-specific letters do not provide a significant additional benefit in show rates compared to standard postcard reminders.
Abstract:
The objective of this study was to determine whether patient-specific letters, which describe the content of an upcoming well-child appointment, improve the show rate of well-child appointments better than postcard reminders. In this prospective clinical trial conducted at a pediatric continuity clinic in a teaching hospital, 288 newborns were randomized to a letter, postcard, or control group. For every well-child appointment, families were sent either a letter pertaining to the particular well-child appointment or a postcard; the control group received no reminders. There were no differences in demographics among the groups. The show rates between the letter and postcard groups were not different, but were significantly higher than the show rate for the control group (75.0%, 73.7%, and 67.5%, respectively; P < .05). A cost comparison between the use of postcards versus not using postcards revealed a benefit in the former. We concluded postcard reminders are effective in improving show rates for well-child-care visits, and that patient-specific letters have no additional benefit above that of postcard reminders.