Danoff N L, Kemper K J
Department of Pediatrics, Harborview Medical Center, Seattle, WA 98104.
West J Med. 1993 Jan;158(1):44-6.
Studies of the effectiveness of telephone reminders to improve the rate of appointments kept have shown conflicting results. Few have accounted for patients without telephones. We conducted a controlled clinical trial to study the effect of excluding patients without telephones in a study of telephone reminders in an urban pediatric clinic. Telephone reminders were attempted the evening before scheduled visits for 238 subjects; 259 controls received no reminders. The overall rate of kept appointments was the same (54%) for both the intervention group and the control group. In neither group was there a substantial difference in the "show" rate between patients with and without telephones (intervention group 52% versus 57%, control group 55% versus 54%). In the intervention group, the show rate was higher for those with telephones who were contacted (66%) than for those who were not (37%) (P < .001). Telephone reminders did not improve the overall rate of kept appointments but appeared to result in a significant improvement in the show rate of those who could be reached. Excluding patients who could not be reached by telephone may affect the usefulness of previous studies.
关于电话提醒对提高预约就诊率有效性的研究结果相互矛盾。很少有研究考虑到没有电话的患者。我们进行了一项对照临床试验，以研究在城市儿科诊所的电话提醒研究中排除没有电话的患者的影响。在预定就诊前一天晚上，对238名受试者尝试进行电话提醒；259名对照组受试者未收到提醒。干预组和对照组的预约就诊总体率相同（54%）。两组中有电话和无电话患者的“就诊”率均无显著差异（干预组分别为52%和57%，对照组分别为55%和54%）。在干预组中，接到电话提醒的有电话患者的就诊率（66%）高于未接到提醒的患者（37%）（P <.001）。电话提醒并未提高预约就诊的总体率，但似乎显著提高了能够联系到的患者的就诊率。排除无法通过电话联系到的患者可能会影响以往研究的有效性。
