PROMPTS TO INCREASE ATTENDANCE IN A COMMUNITY MENTAL‐HEALTH CENTER1
- 1 June 1976
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis
- Vol. 9 (2) , 141-145
- https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.1976.9-141
Abstract
The effect of a brief appointment reminder for mental-health center applicants is reported. A standardized phone message was delivered by an administrative staff member one to three days before the appointment and a sequential experimental design alternating baseline and phone message conditions was used to assess the effects of the procedure. The no-show rate averages were 32%, 11%, 25%, and 14% respectively. The cost of the procedure was $162.00, which was totally recovered when only six appointments were kept. Since over 1000 patients were involved in the study, the return on the investment of $162.00 is considerable. Implications for this procedure are discussed for other community mental-health centers and for other community care-giving agencies.Keywords
This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit:
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