Reducing Missed Appointments for Probation and Parole Supervision: a Randomized Experiment with Text Message Reminders

Research Question Can text message reminders reduce missed appointments with probation or parole officers by clients under community supervision? Data In collaboration with Arkansas Community Corrections (ACC), 4,000 clients under community supervision were selected and tracked for attendance at scheduled supervision meetings from October 1, 2018, through April 15, 2019, with a test sample of 3,470 clients scheduled to attend 14,135 appointments assigned at random to different conditions of appointment reminders. Methods Marquis Software, under contract to ACC, randomly assigned the test sample to one of four conditions of text messages generated by company software: control (no text messages before appointments), early text (2 days before the appointment), late text (1 day before the appointment), and two texts (both 1 day and 4 days before the appointment). Marquis then abstracted the records of appointment attendance by treatment group, for analysis by the academic co-authors. Findings During the 6-month experiment, the best attendance was found in the treatment group assigned to late text reminders 1 day before the appointment. That group had 29% fewer no-shows and 21% fewer cancelled appointments than the control group during the experiment. In a subsequent rollout of the late text treatment to all of the clients still under supervision, the entire remaining group had 30% fewer missed appointments compared to the control group during the experiment. Conclusions Text messages reminding clients to attend parole and probation officer meetings can reduce missed appointments, with potentially substantial reductions in imprisonment due to technical violations of community supervision conditions.

Hearing Aid Review Appointments: Attendance and Effectiveness

Purpose This study aimed to (a) identify participant factors associated with hearing aid review (HAR) appointment attendance, (b) investigate whether the completion of self-report survey identifying hearing aid–related problems affects HAR appointment attendance, and (c) investigate whether hearing aid problems and hearing aid management deficiencies are adequately addressed during HAR appointments. Method A prospective cohort study of adult hearing aid owners recruited from a single hearing clinic in Western Australia. Potential participants were invited to an annual HAR appointment via postal letter. The invitation included a paper-based self-report survey evaluating either (a) hearing aid problems, (b) hearing aid management skills, or (c) hearing aid outcomes, depending on which intervention/control group the potential participants were assigned to, and a reply paid addressed envelope. Two months later, potential participants were sent all three paper-based self-report surveys, irrespective of whether they had attended or not attended an HAR appointment. Results (a) There was no significant difference in gender or source of funding for hearing services between HAR appointment attendees and nonattendees. HAR nonattendees lived a greater distance from their clinic and were younger than attendees. (b) Survey completion did not influence HAR appointment attendance rates. (c) A significant reduction in individuals' self-reported hearing aid problems was recorded following the attendance at the HAR appointment. No significant changes in hearing aid management skills or overall hearing aid outcomes were detected. Conclusions Long travel distances may be a barrier to attendance at review appointments. HAR appointments appear to be effective in improving hearing aid problems.

Evaluation of an Automated Reminder System for Reducing Missed MRI Appointments

Background The high frequency of missed appointments continues to be a burden to healthcare providers, leading to decreased productivity, quality of service, and quality of outcome. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of Televox’s automated appointment reminder service in reducing the missed appointment rate. Televox appointment reminders were implemented at three of five locations in October 2018, and the total and no-show numbers were summed across those locations for each month to calculate monthly missed appointment rates. T-tests were used to compare the missed appointment rate before and after October for four groups, locations with or without Televox implementation, in 2018 or 2019. Results An insignificant decline in missed appointment rates was found in locations using with Televox (p = 0.495) overall, although a significant decrease in missed appointments was found among Medicaid patients (p = 0.0381). Conclusion Implementation of Televox appointment reminder systems did not significantly affect appointment attendance overall, but could be more useful specifically for encouraging Medicaid patients to attend MRI appointments.

Non-attendance at an out-patient otolaryngology and head and neck clinic in New Zealand: impact of coronavirus disease 2019, and demographic, clinical and environmental factors

Background Fear of contracting coronavirus disease 2019 may be the latest addition to the barriers to clinic attendance. This study aimed to examine the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 and other variables on non-attendance rate at an out-patient clinic. Methods Clinic attendance at the Department of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, Waikato Hospital, New Zealand, was assessed. For each appointment, the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 and other variables on non-attendance rate were analysed. Results In total, 1963 appointments were scheduled, with 194 non-attendances (9.9 per cent). Patients who had their appointments confirmed beforehand were 10.0 times more likely to attend their appointment. Sex, socioeconomic status, ethnicity and age were found to impact non-attendance rate. Conclusion In New Zealand, coronavirus disease 2019 does not appear to be a barrier to out-patient clinic appointment attendance. The patient's age, sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and prior appointment confirmation were found to influence clinic attendance.

Association between Insight, Appointment Attendance and Secondary Mental Health Service Use a Naturalistic Cohort Study using Electronic Health Records

BackgroundWe aimed to determine whether insight at discharge from Crisis treatment and home Resolution Teams (CRTs) was associated with appointment attendance and further use of CRTs or inpatient admission.MethodsWe extracted routine electronic health data from Camden & Islington(C&I) NHS Foundation Trust including individuals with a primary diagnosis of non-affective psychosis (ICD-10, F20-29) who presented at least once to C&I CRTs between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2017. We defined insight as a composite construct, including Illness Recognition, Treatment Compliance and Symptom Relabelling, and tested whether insight could be coded using data extracted from progress notes. A total of 317 records were analysed. Multivariable Poisson, Negative Binomial regressions were used to estimate differences in attendance rates; Cox modelling was used to estimate differences in risk of service use. We analysed the models at 12-months from first CRTs discharge, and at the end of cohort (all-time).ResultsMost of the descriptions of insight did not map onto our conceptualisation of insight, only 87(27.4%) had no missing data in all 3 components. People with partial insight had a lower attendance rate than people with lack of insight at 12 months (incident-rate-ratio = 0.945,95% CI 0.896-0.997). People with full insight had a decreased rate of service use compared to people with lack of insight at all-time (hazard-ratio = 0.638, 95% CI 0.424-0.960). ConclusionsOverall, better insight was not associated with higher face-to-face appointment attendance, but was associated with lower rates of service use after first discharge from CRTs.