Interaction with SMS text-reminders correlate with improved medication adherence and readmission rates for congestive heart failure patients: A retrospective cohort study

Short message service text reminders (SMS nudges) aimed to help vulnerable patient populations remember to fill their prescriptions are becoming more common but accurately measuring their effects on improving prescription fill and readmission rates remains challenging. Patients who presented to the emergency department (ED) with a primary diagnosis of congestive heart failure (CHF) were included in the study. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of CHF patients who did and did not interact with SMS nudges, then matched patients who were prescribed medications at any point in their hospital visit with records of subsequent prescription fills. Patients that interacted with SMS nudges had 19% higher odds of filling prescriptions overall (1.19 OR (95% CI: 1.15 - 1.24), p < 0.001) and 6% lower odds of being readmitted to the hospital (0.94 (95% CI: 0.9 - 0.99), p = 0.009) than patients who did not interact with SMS nudges. Interactive SMS nudges via a novel tool may improve prescription fill rates across multiple groups of CHF patients, and contribute to a reduction in readmissions.