Arrival Time Implementation
Trial Snapshot
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Status
- Recruiting
- Enrollment
- 300,000
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- Difference between patient's arrival time and scheduled appointment time
Study Overview
Brief Summary
This is a prospective clinical trial evaluating how behaviorally informed message framing can improve patient on-time arrival for outpatient visits. This trial is being implemented in conjunction with UCLA Health's broader operational quality improvement (QI) efforts to enhance clinic flow and patient experience.
The main question it aims to answer is how displaying an explicit arrival time (set to 15 minutes before the scheduled appointment) affects when patients arrive for their appointments, compared to a control condition where only the appointment time is displayed and patients are encouraged to arrive 15 min before the appointment (without an explicit arrival time).
Detailed Description
Timely patient arrival is essential for maintaining efficient clinic operations and ensuring patients receive the full duration of their scheduled care. Late arrivals disrupt clinic flow, reduce time with providers, and can delay subsequent appointments, creating a ripple effect across the day. This project aims to test a low-cost behavioral intervention that clarifies arrival expectations and promotes on-time arrival for scheduled appointments.
This study evaluates the effectiveness of an intervention designed to make the expected arrival time more salient to patients. The study will be implemented across outpatient departments that deliver primary care as part of UCLA Health's operational improvement initiative to improve clinic flow and patient experience.
Specifically, the intervention modifies how appointment information is presented to patients (or proxies in the case of patients < 18 years old) through two communication channels used by UCLA Health: (1) the patient portal (called MyChart at UCLA Health) and (2) the text messaging platform (called Hello World at UCLA Health), which sends patients automated text notifications prior to their appointment.
Control Condition On the MyChart home page, patients see only the scheduled appointment time (e.g., "Starts at 3:00 PM") for their upcoming appointments. Within the appointment details page, patients see their appointment time and an additional instruction to "Arrive 15 minutes before your appointment." Text notifications state the appointment time and include a prompt to arrive 15 minutes early (e.g., "[Patient name], you have an upcoming visit on 12 Jan 2026 at 3:00pm. Arrive 15 minutes before your appointment time").
Treatment Condition On the MyChart home page, patients see an explicit arrival time for their upcoming appointments, set to 15 minutes before the scheduled appointment time (e.g., "Arrive by 2:45 PM" for an appointment scheduled at 3PM), instead of the appointment time itself. Within the appointment details page, patients see their appointment time as well as the arrival time.
Study Design
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Parallel
- Primary Purpose
- Health Services Research
- Masking
- Double (Participant, Care Provider)
Eligibility Criteria
- Ages
- 18 Years to — (Adult, Older Adult)
- Sex
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria
- •In-person outpatient appointments with clinicians at UCLA Health that fall into the study period
- •Appointments scheduled for the department specialties of Primary Care, Pediatrics, or Internal Medicine, Med Peds
- •Has an active MyChart status
- •Opted in to receive SMS communications from UCLA Health
- •Appointments classified as the following visit types:
- •Well adult (physical)
- •Well child return
- •Well adult new (physical)
- •Well child (new)
Exclusion Criteria
- •Appointments at clinics that are not scheduled through the Patient Access Organization
Arms & Interventions
Arm 1: Appointment time
Patients will receive appointment communications via the MyChart patient portal and Hello World text notifications that display their appointment time.
Intervention: Control appointment communications (Behavioral)
Arm 2: Arrival time
Patients will receive appointment communications via the MyChart patient portal and Hello World text notifications that display their expected arrival time, set to 15 minutes before their scheduled appointment time.
Intervention: Behaviorally informed appointment communications (Behavioral)
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Difference between patient's arrival time and scheduled appointment time
Time Frame: 1 day, day of appointment
The number of minutes between the patient's check-in time and the scheduled appointment time. A positive (negative) value indicates that the patient arrived before (after) the scheduled appointment time.Winsorization at the 0.5th and 99.5th percentiles will be applied.
Secondary Outcomes
- Early arrival(1 day, day of appointment)
- On-time arrival(1 day, day of appointment)
Investigators
Richard K. Leuchter, MD
Assistant Professor
University of California, Los Angeles