title: Patient preferences and access to text messaging for health care reminders in a safety-net setting.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Text messaging may be an effective method for providing health care reminders to patients. We aimed to understand patient access to and preferences for receiving health-related reminders via text message among patients receiving care in safety-net hospitals.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted face-to-face surveys with 793 patients seeking care in three hospital emergency departments at a large safety-net institution and determined clinical and demographic predictors of preferences for text messaging for health care reminders.
  
  
  RESULTS
  95% of respondents reported having daily access to text messaging. Text messaging was preferred over e-mail, phone, and letters for communication. 78% of respondents wanted to receive appointment reminders, 56% wanted expiring insurance reminders, and 36% wanted reminders to take their medications. We found no clinical predictors but did find some demographic predictors-including age, ethnicity, insurance status, and income-of wanting text message reminders.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In our convenience sample of safety-net patients, text messaging is an accessible, acceptable, and patient-preferred modality for receiving health care reminders. Text messaging may be a promising patient-centered approach for providing health care and insurance reminders to patients seeking care at safety-net institutions.
authors: a Department of Medicine , Cambridge Health Alliance , Cambridge , MA , USA.|b Institute for Community Health , Malden , MA , USA.|c Kraft Center for Community Health , Boston , MA , USA.|d Department of Medicine , Harvard Medical School , Boston , MA , USA.
authors: Leah
authors: L
authors: Zallman
authors: b Institute for Community Health , Malden , MA , USA.
authors: Adriana
authors: A
authors: Bearse
authors: e Center for Health and Information Analysis, Commonwealth of Massachusetts , Boston , MA , USA.
authors: Catherine
authors: C
authors: West
authors: a Department of Medicine , Cambridge Health Alliance , Cambridge , MA , USA.|d Department of Medicine , Harvard Medical School , Boston , MA , USA.
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Bor
authors: a Department of Medicine , Cambridge Health Alliance , Cambridge , MA , USA.|d Department of Medicine , Harvard Medical School , Boston , MA , USA.
authors: Danny
authors: D
authors: McCormick
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D006801:Humans; D019458:Insurance Coverage / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008875:Middle Aged; D057240:Patient Preference / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017010:Reminder Systems / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D064876:Safety-net Providers / Q000379:methods*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D060145:Text Messaging; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Patient preferences; safety-net; text messaging