Judith Foyabo presents research for the dissertation titled, "Improving Clinic Attendance Through Text Message Reminders To Homeless Patients With Chronic Health Conditions.", Copyright is retained by the authors. Please contact the authors for further use of this material.
subject
homelessness clinic attendance missed appointments no-shows text message short message service SMS appointments
Background: Homeless people with chronic disorders need routine follow up to control chronic diseases and prevent exacerbations. Returning to the clinic for appointments or other interdisciplinary collaboration without a reminder is challenging. An intervention that involves automatic text message reminders could increase the return to the clinic for follow-ups, minimize ‘no shows’, and improve the overall health of homeless people with chronic diseases.
Research question: What is the effect of text message reminders on clinic attendance for homeless patients who attend two Los Angeles Christian Health Centers (LACHC) clinics in Los Angeles, California.
Objective: The objective of this study is to determine the effectiveness of short message service (SMS) for healthcare appointments to increase clinic follow-up attendance of homeless people in these two clinics
Methods: This was a pilot study using a quasi-experiment designed to measure clinic attendance after the initiation of SMS reminders for clinic visits. The study evaluated the impact of text message reminders to homeless patients by using pre/post testing design. All patients visiting the LACHC clinics during a 3-month time period were included in the sample if they had a functional mobile phone. A text-messaging intervention process enabled from the electronic health record (EHR) called eClinical Works (eCW) was used to send out two text message
reminders. The study compared homeless patient clinic attendance before and after the implementation of text message reminders for follow-up appointment.
Results: The no-show rate reduced from 31.6% to 21.6%, a 10% reduction in one clinic (goal met) and the no-show rate went up from 10.8% to 22.8% (a 12 % increase) in the other clinic (goal not met). However, combining both sites the no-show rate reduced from 22.6% to 16.5%: 6% reduction. Overall attendance in the two clinics increased by 46%, p< .000 more in 2019 than in 2018. No significant difference in attendance between males and females.
Conclusion: The SMS text reminders significantly increased the follow-up attendance and reduction in no-show rates. Cutting down on the number of clinic absences and improving clinic attendance through text messaging could increase health care access for the homeless. This may eventually increase continuity of care, reduce complications from chronic illnesses, improve medication compliance, and lower healthcare cost., Copyright is retained by the authors. Please contact the authors for future use of this material.
subject
homelessness missed appointments no-shows text message short message service SMS clinic attendance appointment
Michelle DeLeon presents research for the dissertation titled, "Open Access Colonoscopy Quality Improvement: A Doctor of Nursing Practice Led Initiative.", Copyrights are retained by the authors. Please contact the authors for future use of this material.
subject
open access colonoscopy colerectal bowel preparation rural populations
Colorectal cancer is a leading cause of death in the United States with colonoscopy fundamental to any colorectal cancer screening program. Open access colonoscopy allows procedures to be performed in a timely manner to detect adenomas. The efficacy of adenoma detection is largely dependent on the quality of colonoscopy bowel preparation. Adenoma detection rate of open access screening colonoscopies and quality of split dosed bowel preparation was measured in a rural private gastroenterology practice in Central Pennsylvania using the 2017 Registry Individual Measure Flow created by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) noting the quality of bowel preparation at the time of review. Open access screening colonoscopy reports were reviewed for ICD-10 codes for 3 risk factors for colorectal cancer, age 50 years and greater, and CPT codes for colonoscopy procedure without modifiers resulting in early termination of the procedure. The annual adenoma detection rate of open access screening colonoscopy patients who me the inclusion criteria was 44.47 % with 96.7% of open access screening colonoscopies rated to have optimal bowel preparations. These findings suggest that open access screening colonoscopy can be a timely, patient-centered method of effective, high quality colorectal cancer screening., Copyrights are retained by the authors. Please contact the authors for further use of this material.
subject
open access colonoscopy colorectal cancer screening rural populations bowel preparation quality adenoma detection rate
