Service Development: Assessing Non-attendance Rates in Outpatient Clinics

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: COPD; Asthma; Sleep Apnea Syndromes; Tuberculosis
• Interventions: Behavioral: Telephone reminder call

• Registration Number: NCT00129649
• Lead Sponsor: Imperial College London

Brief Summary

Many studies have shown a high non-attendance rate in hospital outpatient clinics. The investigators have found a non-attendance rate of 25% in their asthma clinics and would like to investigate whether a reminder phone call will improve attendance rates. Patients will be randomised into two groups; one group will receive a reminder phone call one week prior to their hospital consultation and the other group will be managed in the standard manner (i.e. no reminder of any sort). The phone calls will be carried out on a Friday afternoon by a respiratory nurse specialist and a research officer for two asthma clinics based on a Wednesday morning and a Thursday afternoon.

Detailed Description

Many studies have shown a high non-attendance rate in hospital outpatient clinics. The investigators have found a non-attendance rate of 25% in their asthma clinics and would like to investigate whether a reminder phone call will improve attendance rates. Patients will be randomised into two groups; one group will receive a reminder phone call one week prior to their hospital consultation and the other group will be managed in the standard manner (i.e. no reminder of any sort). The phone calls will be carried out on a Friday afternoon by a respiratory nurse specialist and a research officer for two asthma clinics based on a Wednesday morning and a Thursday afternoon.

To have an 80% chance of detecting a 10% reduction in non-attendance rates (at 5%) 500 patients are required for this study. The rate of non-attendance will be monitored for all the patients in both groups and some demographic information will be recorded for each patient(age, sex, diagnosis and home postcode).

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2005-08-11
• Study First Submitted QC: 2005-08-11
• Study First Posted: 2005-08-12
• Study Start: 2005-10
• Primary Completion: 2006-10
• Study Completion: 2006-11
• Status Verified: 2020-01
• Results First Submitted: 2020-01-08
• Results First Submitted QC: 2020-01-23
• Last Update Submitted: 2020-01-23
• Results First Posted: 2020-02-05
• Last Update Posted: 2020-02-05

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 504

Inclusion Criteria

• Patients with appointments booked for 2 respiratory outpatient clinics

Exclusion criteria

Patients likely to only need one appointment

Exclusion Criteria

Not provided

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
telephone reminder group	Telephone reminder call	This group received a telephone reminder for their clinic appointment

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Attendance Rates at Respiratory Outpatient Clinics	after phone call within 1 week	rates of attendance measured for scheduled clinics - attended patients

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

NHLI Imperial College; 🇬🇧 London, United Kingdom