Service Development: Assessing Non-attendance Rates in Outpatient Clinics

Asthma Clinical Trial

Official title:

Service Development: Assessing Non-attendance Rates in Outpatient Clinics

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT00129649
• Other study ID #: NHLICX3806
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: October 2005
• Est. completion date: November 2006

Study information

• Verified date: January 2020
• Source: Imperial College London
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial 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.

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).

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 504
• Est. completion date: November 2006
• Est. primary completion date: October 2006
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years to 90 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients with appointments booked for 2 respiratory outpatient clinics

Exclusion criteria

Patients likely to only need one appointment

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Asthma
• COPD
• Sleep Apnea Syndromes
• Tuberculosis

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Telephone reminder call

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United Kingdom	NHLI Imperial College	London

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Imperial College London

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United Kingdom, 

References & Publications (1)

Roberts N, Meade K, Partridge M. The effect of telephone reminders on attendance in respiratory outpatient clinics. J Health Serv Res Policy. 2007 Apr;12(2):69-72. — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Attendance Rates at Respiratory Outpatient Clinics	rates of attendance measured for scheduled clinics - attended patients	after phone call within 1 week