AttendanceHealth CallNCT02442089
Impact of Automated Calls on Pediatric Patient Attendance in Chile
A study testing Health Call in people with Attendance, run by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health at 1 site in Chile.
Trial summary
Missed health care appointments present a serious challenge to patient care. Especially in government funded health systems like that of Chile, missed appointments can lead to delayed care, wasted resources, and escalating costs. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages Up to 18 yearsHealthy volunteers can take part
- Conditions the study is for
- Attendance
- What is being tested?
- Health Call
- Type of treatment
- Lifestyle or therapy programme
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 263 participants
- Where
- 1 siteChile
- Study dates
- Dec 2013to Jun 2016
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- None posted in the registry
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages Up to 18 years
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers accepted
- Child, Adult
Who may be able to join
- Guardian with a phone number (land-line or mobile) who is able to receive and answer voice calls
- Guardian who is willing to take part in the study and complete the consent form
- Guardian who is sufficiently proficient in Spanish so as to complete the questionnaire
- Guardian's patient who has a referral appointment at Hospital Luis Calvo Mackenna who is 18 years of age or younger
Who cannot join
- Guardian or child who do not meet the inclusion criteria
- Anyone that lives in the same household as an enrolled study participant.
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country.
About this study
Official title: Health Call: A Randomized Control Trial of Interactive Automated Reminder Calls to Reduce Failure to Attend Rates at an Urban Referral Hospital in Chile
Missed health care appointments present a serious challenge to patient care. Especially in government funded health systems like that of Chile, missed appointments can lead to delayed care, wasted resources, and escalating costs.
This private-public-research collaboration seeks to provide a rigorous, practical evaluation of a new patient reminder system, evaluate how health beliefs impact patient attendance, and capture the potential for scaling up this or other health technology systems. Using a mixed-methods approach this study will provide contextualized, triangulated analysis of pediatric patient attendance in Chile.
Read the detailed description
The Health Call study is divided into two phases. The first phase is a randomized controlled trial and side-by- side cost-benefit analysis. Enrolled guardians of pediatric patients will complete a questionnaire at the point of referral and then be randomized to intervention, the automated reminder system, or no reminder. The investigators will then monitor attendance status at their subsequent appointment and evaluate whether the appointment reminders affected attendance as well as the cost-benefit ratio of using the reminder system.
The second phase will involve interviewing guardians and healthcare professionals. These interviews have two foci. First, combined with patient, guardian, and/or household data from the randomized trial, these results will be used to develop a more comprehensive understanding of why pediatric patients attend appointments. The second focus is on improving the reminder system and developing new health technology interventions that can increase patient attendance.
- Conditions
- Attendance
- Being tested
- Health Call
- Keywords
- mHealth, eHealth, Health Systems, Health Technology, No Show, Non-attendance, Chile, Randomized controlled trial, Efficiency, Organizational, Pediatric Hospitals, Global Health, Referral and Consultation, Health Care Systems, Community Health Systems, Health Information Systems, Integrated Health Care Systems, Community Medicine
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Health CallBehavioural
Health Call is an automated interactive voice reminder system that can contact guardians of patients ahead of their child's appointment, asks then confirms a security question about the patient, then, if the call recipient passes the security screen, provides a reminder about upcoming appointment.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| No Intervention | No intervention | The intervention arm subjects will not receive the automated interactive voice reminder before their appointment. |
| Intervention | Experimental | The intervention arm subjects will receive the automated interactive voice reminder before their appointment. Receives: Behavioral: Health Call |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Intervention impact
Evaluate whether a patient reminder system, Health Call, can decrease the overall failure to attend appointment rate as a percentage of overall appointments
Measured: 9 months
Key attendance factors
Examine what demographic or health belief factors are significantly related to appointment attendance as measured by a psychometric questionnaire
Measured: 9 months
Develop new interventions
Investigate staff and recipient opinions of patient attendance, the Health Call system, and ideas for future interventions to reduce failure to attend as measured through in-depth interviews
Measured: 9 months
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted13 May 2015 (estimated)
- Study startDec 2013
- Primary completionJan 2016
- Study completionJun 2016
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Other trials for AttendanceStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- More trials run by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public HealthThe sponsor's other registered studies.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Health services research
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- Single blind
- Who is masked
- Investigator
- Enrolment
- 263 participants (actual)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- Hospital Luis Calvo Mackenna, Merlin Telecom
- Responsible party
- Sponsor
- Investigators
- William Weiss, DrPH, MA, Principal investigator, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT02442089
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- 00004109
- Acronym
- Health Call
- Status last verified
- May 2015
- First submitted
- 6 Apr 2015
- Last updated
- 14 Jun 2016
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 14 Jun 2016. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Health Call: A Randomized Control Trial of Interactive Automated Reminder Calls to Reduce Failure to Attend Rates at an Urban Referral Hospital in Chile
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT02442089
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- Health Call / 00004109
- Conditions
- Attendance
- Keywords
- mHealth, eHealth, Health Systems, Health Technology, No Show, Non-attendance, Chile, Randomized controlled trial
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Enrolment
- 263 participants (actual)
- Lead sponsor
- Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public HealthUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- Hospital Luis Calvo Mackenna, Merlin Telecom
- Study start
- Dec 2013
- Primary completion
- Jan 2016 (actual)
- Study completion
- Jun 2016 (actual)
- First posted
- 13 May 2015 (estimated)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
Missed health care appointments present a serious challenge to patient care. Especially in government funded health systems like that of Chile, missed appointments can lead to delayed care, wasted resources, and escalating costs.
This private-public-research collaboration seeks to provide a rigorous, practical evaluation of a new patient reminder system, evaluate how health beliefs impact patient attendance, and capture the potential for scaling up this or other health technology systems. Using a mixed-methods approach this study will provide contextualized, triangulated analysis of pediatric patient attendance in Chile.
Detailed description
The Health Call study is divided into two phases. The first phase is a randomized controlled trial and side-by- side cost-benefit analysis. Enrolled guardians of pediatric patients will complete a questionnaire at the point of referral and then be randomized to intervention, the automated reminder system, or no reminder. The investigators will then monitor attendance status at their subsequent appointment and evaluate whether the appointment reminders affected attendance as well as the cost-benefit ratio of using the reminder system.
The second phase will involve interviewing guardians and healthcare professionals. These interviews have two foci. First, combined with patient, guardian, and/or household data from the randomized trial, these results will be used to develop a more comprehensive understanding of why pediatric patients attend appointments. The second focus is on improving the reminder system and developing new health technology interventions that can increase patient attendance.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Health services research
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- Single blind (investigator)
- Number of arms
- 2
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| No Intervention | No intervention | –The intervention arm subjects will not receive the automated interactive voice reminder before their appointment. |
| Intervention | Experimental | Behavioral: Health CallThe intervention arm subjects will receive the automated interactive voice reminder before their appointment. |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- Up to 18 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepted
- Age groups
- Child, Adult
Key inclusion criteria (4 listed)
- Guardian with a phone number (land-line or mobile) who is able to receive and answer voice calls
- Guardian who is willing to take part in the study and complete the consent form
- Guardian who is sufficiently proficient in Spanish so as to complete the questionnaire
- Guardian's patient who has a referral appointment at Hospital Luis Calvo Mackenna who is 18 years of age or younger
Key exclusion criteria (2 listed)
- Guardian or child who do not meet the inclusion criteria
- Anyone that lives in the same household as an enrolled study participant.
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Health CallHealth Call is an automated interactive voice reminder system that can contact guardians of patients ahead of their child's appointment, asks then confirms a security question about the patient, then, if the call recipient passes the security screen, provides a reminder about upcoming appointment. | Behavioural | Intervention |
Primary outcome
Intervention impact
Time frame: 9 months
Evaluate whether a patient reminder system, Health Call, can decrease the overall failure to attend appointment rate as a percentage of overall appointments
Key attendance factors
Time frame: 9 months
Examine what demographic or health belief factors are significantly related to appointment attendance as measured by a psychometric questionnaire
Develop new interventions
Time frame: 9 months
Investigate staff and recipient opinions of patient attendance, the Health Call system, and ideas for future interventions to reduce failure to attend as measured through in-depth interviews
Results and safety
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 14 Jun 2016.
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part. This study is not recruiting at the moment.
William Weiss, DrPH, MA principal investigator
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing Health Call in people with Attendance, run by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health at 1 site in Chile.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 4 inclusion and 2 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 14 Jun 2016. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in Chile. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Intervention impact (time frame: 9 months). The study lists 3 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 14 Jun 2016.