title: Appointment reminder systems and patient preferences: Patient technology usage and familiarity with other service providers as predictive variables.
abstract: This study had two aims: to measure patient preferences for medical appointment reminder systems and to assess the predictive value of patient usage and familiarity with other service providers contacting them on responsiveness to appointment reminder systems. We used a cross-sectional design wherein patients' at an urban, primary-care clinic ranked various reminder systems and indicated their usage of technology and familiarity with other service providers contacting them over text messages and e-mails. We assessed the impact of patient usage of text messages and e-mails and patient familiarity with other service providers contacting them over text messages and e-mails on effectiveness of and responsiveness to appointment reminder systems. We found that patient usage of text messages or e-mails and familiarity with other service providers contacting them are the best predictors of perceived effectiveness and responsiveness to text message and e-mail reminders. When these variables are accounted for, age and other demographic variables do not predict responsiveness to reminder systems.
authors.affiliation: Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York 10032, USA. sf2559@columbia.edu
authors.forename: Stacey R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Finkelstein
authors.forename: Nan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Beena
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jani
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rosenthal
authors.forename: Lusine
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Poghosyan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D034742:Electronic Mail; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019458:Insurance Coverage; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009519:New York City; D057240:Patient Preference / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017010:Reminder Systems / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019035:Rural Health Services; D013030:Spain / Q000208:ethnology; D013689:Telephone; D060145:Text Messaging / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019037:Urban Health Services; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Appointment reminder systems; clinical decision making; health promotion; patient expertise; survey research