Telephone prompting to increase attendance at a Psychiatric Outpatient Clinic.

Although it has been commonly taught and has been reported elsewhere that telephone prompting increases the rate at which patients keep their first outpatient clinic appointment, this study indicated that the increased rate at which patients kept their first appointment was more likely related to socioeconomic factors (such as having a telephone) than to telephone prompting. The authors conclude that measures to improve services to patients need to be carefully scrutinized before one can assume that results following initiation of a new procedure are in fact due to that procedure.