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OpenTrials
Completed

NCT Number: NCT02442089

Impact of Automated Calls on Pediatric Patient Attendance in Chile

Missed health care appointments present a serious challenge to patient care. Especially in government funded health systems like that of Chile, missed appointments can lead to delayed care, wasted resources, and escalating costs.

This private-public-research collaboration seeks to provide a rigorous, practical evaluation of a new patient reminder system, evaluate how health beliefs impact patient attendance, and capture the potential for scaling up this or other health technology systems. Using a mixed-methods approach this study will provide contextualized, triangulated analysis of pediatric patient attendance in Chile.

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Key information

Conditions

Attendance

Age range

Up to 18 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Hospital Luis Calvo Mackenna

Santiago, Chile

About this study

The Health Call study is divided into two phases. The first phase is a randomized controlled trial and side-by- side cost-benefit analysis. Enrolled guardians of pediatric patients will complete a questionnaire at the point of referral and then be randomized to intervention, the automated reminder system, or no reminder. The investigators will then monitor attendance status at their subsequent appointment and evaluate whether the appointment reminders affected attendance as well as the cost-benefit ratio of using the reminder system.

The second phase will involve interviewing guardians and healthcare professionals. These interviews have two foci. First, combined with patient, guardian, and/or household data from the randomized trial, these results will be used to develop a more comprehensive understanding of why pediatric patients attend appointments. The second focus is on improving the reminder system and developing new health technology interventions that can increase patient attendance.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Guardian with a phone number (land-line or mobile) who is able to receive and answer voice calls
  • Guardian who is willing to take part in the study and complete the consent form
  • Guardian who is sufficiently proficient in Spanish so as to complete the questionnaire
  • Guardian's patient who has a referral appointment at Hospital Luis Calvo Mackenna who is 18 years of age or younger

Exclusion criteria

  • Guardian or child who do not meet the inclusion criteria
  • Anyone that lives in the same household as an enrolled study participant.

Treatment and study plan

Health Call

Behavioral

Health Call is an automated interactive voice reminder system that can contact guardians of patients ahead of their child's appointment, asks then confirms a security question about the patient, then, if the call recipient passes the security screen, provides a reminder about upcoming appointment.

Primary outcomes

  1. Intervention impact

    Time frame: 9 months

    Evaluate whether a patient reminder system, Health Call, can decrease the overall failure to attend appointment rate as a percentage of overall appointments

  2. Key attendance factors

    Time frame: 9 months

    Examine what demographic or health belief factors are significantly related to appointment attendance as measured by a psychometric questionnaire

  3. Develop new interventions

    Time frame: 9 months

    Investigate staff and recipient opinions of patient attendance, the Health Call system, and ideas for future interventions to reduce failure to attend as measured through in-depth interviews

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Other

Collaborators

  • Hospital Luis Calvo Mackenna
  • Merlin Telecom

Registry information

Official study title

Health Call: A Randomized Control Trial of Interactive Automated Reminder Calls to Reduce Failure to Attend Rates at an Urban Referral Hospital in Chile

Acronym: Health Call

Important dates

Study start
2013
Primary completion
2016
Study completion
2016
First posted
May 13, 2015
Registry last updated
Jun 14, 2016

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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