Reducing Missed Appointments for Patients With HIV: An Evidence-Based Approach

Background:
High rates of missed appointments for routine HIV care are associated with unsuppressed viremia, increasing morbidity.
Local Problem:
The Clinic no-show rate ranged between 30% and 35%, and only 69% of patients were considered retained in care within a 24-month time frame.
Methods:
The Woodward Risk Prediction Tool was completed on all patients to stratify patient risk for missing the next appointment.
Interventions:
All patients were offered text message along with standard phone message appointment reminders, and patients who missed appointments were called within 24 hours to reschedule. Medium-risk patients received a previsit planning call to remove barriers to appointment attendance, and high-risk patients received a home visit from the peer navigator.
Results:
The project resulted in a 3.8% reduction rate in the overall no-show rate in the first 5 months of implementation. Using risk stratification and targeted interventions allowed valuable resources to be allocated where they were needed.

Source: Journal of Nursing Care Quality - February 19, 2020 Category: Nursing Tags: Articles Source Type: research