JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Inadequate patient education and preparation for office-based procedures often leads to delayed care, poor patient satisfaction, and increased costs to the healthcare system. We developed and deployed a mobile health (mHealth) reminder and education program for patients scheduled for transrectal prostate biopsy.

Objective:

We aimed to evaluate the impact of an mHealth reminder and education program on appointment cancellation rates, communication frequency, and patient satisfaction.

Methods:

We developed a text message-based (SMS) program with seven reminders containing links to web-based content and surveys sent over an 18-day period (14 days before through 3 days after prostate biopsy). Messages contained educational content, reminders, and readiness questionnaires. Demographic information, appointment cancellations or change data, and patient/provider communication events were collected for 6 months before and after launching the intervention. Patient satisfaction was evaluated in the post-intervention cohort.

Results:

The pre-intervention (n=473) and post-intervention (n=359) cohorts were composed of men of similar median age, racial/ethnic distribution, and living a similar distance from clinic. The post-intervention cohort had significantly fewer cancelled or rescheduled appointments (33.8% vs 21.2%, p<0.01) and fewer same day cancellations (3.8% vs 0.5%, p<0.01). There was a significant increase in pre-procedural telephone calls (0.6 vs. 0.8 calls/patient, p=0.02) in the post-intervention cohort, but not a detectable change in post-procedural calls. The mean satisfaction with the program was 4.5 out of 5 (SD 0.9).

Conclusions:

An mHealth peri-procedural outreach program significantly lowered appointment cancellations and was associated with high patient satisfaction scores with a slight increase in pre-procedural telephone calls. This led to fewer under-utilized procedure appointments and high patient satisfaction.