Patients' willingness to utilize a SMS-based appointment scheduling system at a family practice unit in a developing country.

UNLABELLED

Aim The investigators aimed to assess the willingness of patients to utilize and pay for a proposed short message service- (SMS) based appointment scheduling service.

BACKGROUND

Telecommunication applications have been introduced to improve the delivery of healthcare services in developed countries; however, public-funded healthcare systems in developing countries like Nigeria are mostly unfamiliar with the use of such technologies for improving healthcare access.

METHODS

We proposed a SMS-based (text message) appointment scheduling system to consenting subjects at an outpatients' clinic and explored their willingness to utilize and pay for the service. Using semi-structured interview schedules, we collected information on: estimated arrival time, most important worry when seeking for healthcare services at public hospitals in the study setting, ownership of a mobile phone, willingness to utilize a SMS-based appointment for clinic visits and willingness to pay for the service. In addition, respondents were asked to suggest a tariff for the proposed system. Findings A total of 500 consecutively recruited patients aged 16-86 (42.1±15.4) years participated; 54% (n=270) were females. Waiting time ranged from 1-7.5 h (3.9±1.1). Two overlapping themes emerged as most important worries: crowded waiting rooms and long waiting time. Ownership of mobile phones was reported by 96.4% (n=482) of subjects. Nearly all favoured the proposed appointment scheduling system (n=486, 97.2%). Majority of patients who favoured the system were willing to pay for the service (n=484, 99.6%). Suggested tariff ranged from 0.03 to 20.83 (1.53±2.11) US dollars; 89.8% (n=349) of the subjects suggested tariffs that were greater than the prevailing retail cost of the proposed service. In sum, our findings indicate that patients in this study were willing to utilize and pay for a proposed SMS-based appointment scheduling system. The findings have implications for policies aimed at improving healthcare access and delivery of healthcare services at the primary care level in developing countries like Nigeria.