Evaluating Telehealth and In-Person Appointment Adherence Using Reminder Phone Calls in the Outpatient Psychiatric Setting

There may be many reasons for a missed appointment, with forgetting an appointment being only one of them. Despite a reminder phone call, appointment attendance did not significantly improve. Providers may want to consider flexible scheduling from in-person to telehealth appointments as a way to improve attendance, given that telehealth appointment attendance is higher and may eliminate transportation concerns. Future studies should evaluate flexible scheduling as well as multi-pronged interventions that address several reasons for non-attendance.