Increasing Postpartum Appointment Attendance Rates

Background: Postpartum visits provide an opportunity to detect and address potential complications, monitor healing and recovery, and offer guidance and support during the transition into motherhood. Current research shows that appointment reminders increase healthcare appointment attendance rates, whether delivered via text messages or phone calls. Purpose: The purpose of this academic project was to plan, implement, and evaluate a process change within a single health facility to increase postpartum visit attendance rates. Methods: This evidence-based scholarly project used telephone calls to remind patients scheduled for postpartum visits of their appointment dates and times. Appointment reminder phone calls were completed the day before a patient was scheduled for a postpartum visit, or on Fridays for patients scheduled for a Monday appointment. The pre- and post-intervention postpartum appointment attendance rates were evaluated for comparison. Results: Postpartum appointment attendance rates increased after implementation of appointment reminder phone calls. Post-intervention data showed the appointment attendance rates increased by an average of 6% for women scheduled for a postpartum visit. Conclusions: Telephone appointment reminders decreased postpartum appointment no-show rates at this outpatient clinic. This project laid the groundwork for future projects that could evaluate the impact of appointment reminder phone calls on appointment attendance rates at different time intervals or on other appointment reminder systems. It may be insightful to interview patients who receive appointment reminders to understand their preferred reminder times and methods, to gain perspective on the impact of phone call reminders, or to understand why patients miss their appointments.