Nudging High-acuity Emergency Department Patients to Schedule a Follow-up Visit

Not Applicable

Recruiting

• Conditions: Emergency Service, Hospital
• Interventions: Behavioral: Information about scheduling a follow-up appointment

• Registration Number: NCT06535347
• Lead Sponsor: Geisinger Clinic

Brief Summary

The goal of this campaign is to reduce unnecessary emergency department (ED) visits by encouraging patients with high acuity visits to follow up with an appropriate primary care provider (PCP) or specialist and therefore obtain appropriate care outside of the ED. In this campaign, patients will be assigned to receive or not receive outreach following ED discharge that is aligned with the goal. Outreach will occur via a text message and information added to the patient's after visit summary, and will include a contact number to schedule and hyperlink to allow self-scheduling. The study will assess whether ED use differs across patients in different outreach conditions. It will also examine whether patients followed through on the calls to action in the messages differently across conditions.

Detailed Description

Enrollment will conclude when either 7500 participants have been enrolled or after 120 days, whichever occurs first.

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2024-07-08
• Study First Submitted QC: 2024-08-01
• Study First Posted: 2024-08-02
• Study Start: 2024-08-09
• Status Verified: 2024-11
• Last Update Submitted: 2024-11-21
• Last Update Posted: 2024-11-25
• Primary Completion: 2025-02-09
• Study Completion: 2025-04-09

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: RECRUITING
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 1

Inclusion Criteria

• >= 18 years of age
• ED visit rated as high acuity (level L2 or L3)
• Discharged from ED in past 24 hours
• Attributed to a Geisinger PCP in Community Medicine Service Line

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Exclusion Criteria

• Have an appointment scheduled within 7 days following discharge with a primary care provider or specialist
• Institutionalized
• Cannot be contacted via the communication modality being used in the study (i.e., SMS), due to insufficient/missing contact information in the electronic health record or because the patient opted out
• Admitted to hospital
• Eloped from ED
• Left ED without being seen
• Deceased prior to messaging

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Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Experimental: Schedule Follow-Up Visit - 1 message	Information about scheduling a follow-up appointment	This arm will receive a text message (at 1 day post-ED discharge) and information added to the patient's after visit summary providing a number and patient portal hyperlink via which to schedule an ED follow-up appointment.
Experimental: Schedule Follow-Up Visit - 2 messages	Information about scheduling a follow-up appointment	This arm will receive text messages (at 1 day and 8 days post-ED discharge) and information added to the patient's after visit summary providing a number and patient portal hyperlink via which to schedule an ED follow-up appointment.

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Return to ED	within 120 days following day of discharge	ED visit (yes/no)

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Geisinger Health System; 🇺🇸 Danville, Pennsylvania, United States