SMS Reminders to Reduce Was Not Brought Rates in Paediatric Outpatient
Research type
Research Study
Full title
SMS Reminders to Reduce "Was Not Brought Rates" in Paediatric Outpatient Clinics
IRAS ID
226872
Contact name
Alastair Sutcliffe
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University College London
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 31 days
Research summary
Missed hospital appointments (did not attend - DNA) can cause delays in diagnosis or treatment for patients, and are a major cause of inefficiency for hospitals. Around 1 in 10 hospital appointments in the UK are not attended without being cancelled or re-arranged in advance. In paediatrics, DNAs are called 'was not brought' (WNB), to reflect the responsibility of the parent or guardian to bring the child to the appointment, and alert health professionals to potential well-being and safeguarding concerns of young people who miss appointments. Children's appointments are missed more frequently than adults appointments.
Receiving a short message service (SMS) reminder can reduce non-attendance at hospital appointments. In adult patients, the content of the message exerts a significant effect on clinic attendance; people are more likely to attend an appointment when an SMS contains a 'behavioural prompt,' compared to appointment information (e.g. the time and date) alone. It is unknown whether a comparable effect exists in paediatrics, where different reasons exist for missed appointments.
The proposed project will test whether SMS reminders designed using principles of behavioural psychology can reduce rates of non-attendance at paediatric clinics compared to the current standard message. All parents / guardians of children offered an appointment at either of the two participating hospitals (University College London Hospitals and University Hospital Southampton) whose telephone number is known by the hospital and would currently receive an SMS message reminder will be involved in the study. Participants will be randomly allocated to receive one of six SMS reminder messages, and groups will be compared based upon attendance and rescheduling of appointments. There are no other changes to the normal care pathway.
The study will continue until 17,598 parents / guardians have received a reminder SMS. We expect that this will take around 6 months.
REC name
London - Stanmore Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/LO/0163
Date of REC Opinion
9 Feb 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion