Effectiveness of automated appointment reminders in psychosis community services: a randomised controlled trial

Abstract

We report on the first open-label, parallel group randomised controlled trial of automated appointment reminders in a psychosis community service in the UK. Ninety-five patients were randomly allocated to receiving/not receiving automated messaging reminders 7 days and 1 day before appointments. All 'Attended' and 'Missed' appointment outcomes over 6 months were analysed using cluster regression analysis. Reminded appointments were significantly more frequently attended than non-reminded appointments (unadjusted odds ratio (OR) = 3.54, 95% CI 1.36-9.22, P = 0.01; adjusted OR = 2.95, 95% CI 1.05-8.85, P < 0.05). Automated messaging reminders can provide a robust strategy for promoting engagement with psychosis services. Declaration of interest The authors have no competing financial interests to declare in relation to the current work. Sarah McAllister was supported by a King's Undergraduate Research Fellowship.