IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jhecon/v82y2022ics0167629622000182.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How scheduling systems with automated appointment reminders improve health clinic efficiency

Author

Listed:
  • Boone, Claire E
  • Celhay, Pablo
  • Gertler, Paul
  • Gracner, Tadeja
  • Rodriguez, Josefina

Abstract

Missed clinic appointments or no-shows burden health care systems through inefficient use of staff time and resources. Scheduling software with automatic appointment reminders shows promise to improve clinics’ management through timely cancellations and re-scheduling, but at-scale evidence is missing. We study a nationwide text message appointment reminder program in Chile implemented at primary care clinics for patients with chronic disease. Using longitudinal clinic-level data, we find that the program did not change the number of visits by chronic patients eligible to receive the reminder but visits from other patients ineligible to receive reminders increased by 5.0% in the first year and 7.4% in the second. Clinics treating more chronic patients and those with a relatively younger patient population benefited more from the program. Scheduling systems with automatic appointment reminders were effective in increasing clinics’ ability to care for more patients, likely due to timely cancellations and re-scheduling.

Suggested Citation

  • Boone, Claire E & Celhay, Pablo & Gertler, Paul & Gracner, Tadeja & Rodriguez, Josefina, 2022. "How scheduling systems with automated appointment reminders improve health clinic efficiency," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:82:y:2022:i:c:s0167629622000182
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2022.102598
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167629622000182
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2022.102598?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Clément de Chaisemartin & Xavier D'Haultfœuille, 2020. "Two-Way Fixed Effects Estimators with Heterogeneous Treatment Effects," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(9), pages 2964-2996, September.
    2. Dolton, Peter & Pathania, Vikram, 2016. "Can increased primary care access reduce demand for emergency care? Evidence from England's 7-day GP opening," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 193-208.
    3. Haotian Lin & Xiaohang Wu, 2014. "Intervention Strategies for Improving Patient Adherence to Follow-Up in the Era of Mobile Information Technology: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(8), pages 1-6, August.
    4. Diwakar Gupta & Wen-Ya Wang, 2012. "Patient Appointments in Ambulatory Care," International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, in: Randolph Hall (ed.), Handbook of Healthcare System Scheduling, chapter 0, pages 65-104, Springer.
    5. Gertler, Paul & Giovagnoli, Paula & Martinez, Sebastian, 2014. "Rewarding provider performance to enable a healthy start to life : evidence from Argentina's Plan Nacer," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6884, The World Bank.
    6. Athey, Susan & Imbens, Guido W., 2022. "Design-based analysis in Difference-In-Differences settings with staggered adoption," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 226(1), pages 62-79.
    7. Grant Miller & Kimberly Singer Babiarz, 2013. "Pay-for-Performance Incentives in Low- and Middle-Income Country Health Programs," NBER Working Papers 18932, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Pinchbeck, Edward W., 2019. "Convenient primary care and emergency hospital utilisation," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    9. Alberto Abadie & Susan Athey & Guido W. Imbens & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2020. "Sampling‐Based versus Design‐Based Uncertainty in Regression Analysis," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(1), pages 265-296, January.
    10. Andrew Goodman-Bacon, 2018. "Difference-in-Differences with Variation in Treatment Timing," NBER Working Papers 25018, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Bech, Mickael, 2005. "The economics of non-attendance and the expected effect of charging a fine on non-attendees," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(2), pages 181-191, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jonathan Roth & Pedro H. C. Sant’Anna, 2023. "Efficient Estimation for Staggered Rollout Designs," Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(4), pages 669-709.
    2. Ashesh Rambachan & Jonathan Roth, 2020. "Design-Based Uncertainty for Quasi-Experiments," Papers 2008.00602, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2024.
    3. Bhattacharjee, Arnab & Aravena, Claudia & Castillo, Natalia & Ehrlich, Marco & Taou, Nadia & Wagner, Thomas, 2022. "Agroforestry Programs in the Colombian Amazon: Selection, Treatment and Exposure Effects on Deforestation," National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) Discussion Papers 537, National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
    4. John Gardner, 2022. "Two-stage differences in differences," Papers 2207.05943, arXiv.org.
    5. Sun, Liyang & Abraham, Sarah, 2021. "Estimating dynamic treatment effects in event studies with heterogeneous treatment effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 175-199.
    6. Bruno Ferman, 2023. "Inference in difference‐in‐differences: How much should we trust in independent clusters?," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(3), pages 358-369, April.
    7. Roth, Jonathan & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C. & Bilinski, Alyssa & Poe, John, 2023. "What’s trending in difference-in-differences? A synthesis of the recent econometrics literature," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 235(2), pages 2218-2244.
    8. Tamara Bischof & Boris Kaiser, 2021. "Who cares when you close down? The effects of primary care practice closures on patients," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(9), pages 2004-2025, September.
    9. Dmitry Arkhangelsky & Guido W. Imbens & Lihua Lei & Xiaoman Luo, 2021. "Design-Robust Two-Way-Fixed-Effects Regression For Panel Data," Papers 2107.13737, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2024.
    10. Cei, Leonardo & Stefani, Gianluca & Defrancesco, Edi, 2020. "The role of group-time treatment effect heterogeneity in long standing European agricultural policies. An application to the European geographical indication policy," Bio-based and Applied Economics Journal, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA), vol. 9(1), April.
    11. Bruno Ferman & Cristine Pinto, 2021. "Synthetic controls with imperfect pretreatment fit," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 12(4), pages 1197-1221, November.
    12. Joan-Ramon Borrell & Carmen García & Juan Luis Jiménez & José Manuel Ordóñez-de-Haro, 2022. ""Cartel destabilization effect of leniency programs"," IREA Working Papers 202213, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Sep 2022.
    13. Gonçalves, S. & Rodrigues, T.P. & Chagas, A.L.S., 2020. "The impact of wind power on the Brazilian labor market," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    14. Diogo G. C. Britto & Paolo Pinotti & Breno Sampaio, 2022. "The Effect of Job Loss and Unemployment Insurance on Crime in Brazil," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 90(4), pages 1393-1423, July.
    15. Kurt Schmidheiny & Sebastian Siegloch, 2023. "On event studies and distributed‐lags in two‐way fixed effects models: Identification, equivalence, and generalization," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(5), pages 695-713, August.
    16. Peter Z. Schochet, 2021. "Statistical Power for Estimating Treatment Effects Using Difference-in-Differences and Comparative Interrupted Time Series Designs with Variation in Treatment Timing," Papers 2102.06770, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2021.
    17. Yu, Fan & Xiao, De & Chang, Meng-Shiuh, 2021. "The impact of carbon emission trading schemes on urban-rural income inequality in China: A multi-period difference-in-differences method," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    18. Garrouste, Manon & Zaiem, Meryam, 2020. "School supply constraints in track choices: A French study using high school openings," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    19. Klauber, Hannah & Holub, Felix & Koch, Nicolas & Pestel, Nico & Ritter, Nolan & Rohlf, Alexander, 2021. "Killing Prescriptions Softly: Low Emission Zones and Child Health from Birth to School," IZA Discussion Papers 14376, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Rösner, Anja & Haucap, Justus & Heimeshoff, Ulrich, 2020. "The impact of consumer protection in the digital age: Evidence from the European Union," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Automatic appointment reminders; Health care; Large-scale intervention; No-shows; JEL; I11; I12; I18;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Behavior
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:82:y:2022:i:c:s0167629622000182. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505560 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.