SMS text messages help remind patients of appointments in SA

A pilot program in South Australia using SMS or text messaging to remind patients about their elective surgery and outpatient appointments could reduce the amount of missed appointments by up to 50%.

Health Minister John Hill said the Children, Youth and Women’s Health Service (CYWHS) has been trialling the SMS initiative at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, with a possible roll-out to other hospitals in the future.

The SMS initiative works as an alert system for patients who are already booked for elective surgery procedures, and reminds them to confirm their theatre booking. It’s also being used as a reminder for people who have outpatient appointments at the hospital.

Minister Hill said every year, there was a proportion of elective surgery “no shows” – where people have forgotten their appointments or haven’t notified the hospital they can’t attend at the time when their surgery is booked. This can have a significant impact on operating theatre bookings, staff availability and the use of staff time to follow up with the patient.

“By sending a simple confirmation or reminder message to patients who have agreed to use the SMS Initiative, the hospital knows in advance that the patient will attend, or that they need to reschedule the appointment.”

Initial assessment of the pilot program indicates the reminder system has the capacity to reduce the number of people failing to attend outpatient departments by up to 50%.

In two clinics, the “Failure to Attend” rate fell from 11% to 6% during the trial period.

“Patients and staff have reacted positively to the initiative, and the CYWHS is considering whether to extend the pilot program,” Minister Hill said.

“Other hospitals and health services are investigating text messaging as a way of communicating with people for their outpatient appointment reminders.”

Similar systems are being trialled in NSW and Victoria.