Impact of Mobile Text Messaging on Follow Up Rates After Discharge From the Pediatric Emergency Department

To compare the effectiveness of text message versus voice call as a method of contact for providing results of diagnostic tests and assuring ongoing care from the pediatric emergency department.

Study Overview

• Status: Withdrawn
• Conditions: Duty to Recontact
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Text Message

Detailed Description

The investigators plan to conduct a prospective randomized controlled trial to compare two means of contacting patients and their caregivers after discharge from the emergency department in order to provide results of tests: text messaging (intervention group) vs. telephone call (standard group).

• Study Type: Interventional
• Phase: Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: No older than 18 years (Child, Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• patients under the age of 18 who have had diagnostic testing without finalized results prior to discharge from the emergency department

Exclusion Criteria:

• Admitted patients
• Patients transferred to another facility
• Patients with critical values as results
• Do not have devices that can receive phone and text messages
• Cannot read English or Spanish

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Phone Call; Follow up contact is attempted via phone call.
Experimental: Text Message; Follow up contact is attempted via text message.	Other: Text Message; Patient contact attempted with text message.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Number of phone call or text message attempts to successful contact with study participant	A study practitioner will make one attempt per business day to contact the patient or caregiver to provide test results and arrange follow-up care; the method will be determined by the study arm to which the participant is assigned. Participants in the standard practice control arm will receive a telephone call. If a call is not answered, a voice message will be left instructing the patient/parent to call the Pediatric Follow-Up Office. Participants in the intervention arm will receive a text message using the same script. A successful contact will be recorded when a practitioner speaks directly to the patient or parent/guardian via phone.	Within 2 weeks.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Czer Anthoney E Lim, MD, Jacobi Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Dudas RA, Pumilia JN, Crocetti M. Pediatric caregiver attitudes and technologic readiness toward electronic follow-up communication in an urban community emergency department. Telemed J E Health. 2013 Jun;19(6):493-6. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2012.0166. Epub 2013 Apr 9.
• Horne A, Ros SP. Telephone follow-up of patients discharged from the emergency department: how reliable? Pediatr Emerg Care. 1995 Jun;11(3):173-5. doi: 10.1097/00006565-199506000-00008.
• Levitt MA, Johnson S, Engelstad L, Montana R, Stewart S. Clinical management of chlamydia and gonorrhea infection in a county teaching emergency department--concerns in overtreatment, undertreatment, and follow-up treatment success. J Emerg Med. 2003 Jul;25(1):7-11. doi: 10.1016/s0736-4679(03)00131-8.
• Neuner B, Fleming M, Born R, Weiss-Gerlach E, Neumann T, Rettig J, Lau A, Schoenfeld H, Kallischnigg G, Spies C. Predictors of loss to follow-up in young patients with minor trauma after screening and written intervention for alcohol in an urban emergency department. J Stud Alcohol Drugs. 2007 Jan;68(1):133-40. doi: 10.15288/jsad.2007.68.133.
• Reed JL, Huppert JS, Taylor RG, Gillespie GL, Byczkowski TL, Kahn JA, Alessandrini EA. Improving sexually transmitted infection results notification via mobile phone technology. J Adolesc Health. 2014 Nov;55(5):690-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2014.05.004. Epub 2014 Jun 21.
• Reed JL, Simendinger L, Griffeth S, Kim HG, Huppert JS. Point-of-care testing for sexually transmitted infections increases awareness and short-term abstinence in adolescent women. J Adolesc Health. 2010 Mar;46(3):270-7. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2009.08.003. Epub 2009 Oct 12.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: September 1, 2016
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): August 1, 2017
• Study Completion (Anticipated): December 1, 2017

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 19, 2016
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 14, 2018
• First Posted (Actual): September 18, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): September 18, 2018
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 14, 2018
• Last Verified: September 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Text Messaging; Follow Up
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pathologic Processes; Disease Attributes; Emergencies
• Other Study ID Numbers: NYCHHC

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: No

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No