BACKGROUND
Inadequate patient education and preparation for office-based procedures often leads to delayed care, poor patient satisfaction, and increased costs to the healthcare system. We developed and deployed a mobile health (mHealth) reminder and education program for patients scheduled for transrectal prostate biopsy.
OBJECTIVE
We aimed to evaluate the impact of an mHealth reminder and education program on appointment cancellation rates, communication frequency, and patient satisfaction.
METHODS
We developed a text message-based (SMS) program with seven reminders containing links to web-based content and surveys sent over an 18-day period (14 days before through 3 days after prostate biopsy). Messages contained educational content, reminders, and readiness questionnaires. Demographic information, appointment cancellations or change data, and patient/provider communication events were collected for 6 months before and after launching the intervention. Patient satisfaction was evaluated in the post-intervention cohort.
RESULTS
The pre-intervention (n=473) and post-intervention (n=359) cohorts were composed of men of similar median age, racial/ethnic distribution, and living a similar distance from clinic. The post-intervention cohort had significantly fewer cancelled or rescheduled appointments (33.8% vs 21.2%, p<0.01) and fewer same day cancellations (3.8% vs 0.5%, p<0.01). There was a significant increase in pre-procedural telephone calls (0.6 vs. 0.8 calls/patient, p=0.02) in the post-intervention cohort, but not a detectable change in post-procedural calls. The mean satisfaction with the program was 4.5 out of 5 (SD 0.9).
CONCLUSIONS
An mHealth peri-procedural outreach program significantly lowered appointment cancellations and was associated with high patient satisfaction scores with a slight increase in pre-procedural telephone calls. This led to fewer under-utilized procedure appointments and high patient satisfaction.