title: Prompts to increase attendance in a community mental-health center.
abstract: The effect of a brief appointment reminder for mental-health center applicants is reported. A standardized phone message was delivered by an administrative staff member one to three days before the appointment and a sequential experimental design alternating baseline and phone message conditions was used to assess the effects of the procedure. The no-show rate averages were 32%, 11%, 25%, and 14% respectively. The cost of the procedure was $162.00, which was totally recovered when only six appointments were kept. Since over 1000 patients were involved in the study, the return on the investment of +162.00 is considerable. Implications for this procedure are discussed for other community mental-health centers and for other community care-giving agencies.
mesh_terms: D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D003156:Community Mental Health Services; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D006801:Humans; D009934:Organization and Administration; D010349:Patient Compliance; D013689:Telephone