Date of Conferral

2020

Degree

Doctor of Healthcare Administration, DHA

School

Health Services

Advisor

Warren McDonald

Abstract

The failure of patients to keep scheduled appointments results in significant loss of revenue due to decreased administrative efficiency, expensive clinical resource time, disruptive continuity of care between the patient and the provider, and reduced quality of care. The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the use of digital self-scheduling as an emerging alternative to traditional office-assisted scheduling methods and determine if its use has an impact on reducing the occurrence of no-show events. The theoretical framework used for the study was the Consumer Behavior Theory. Three years of de-identified secondary data were collected from a large, adult primary care clinic, part of an integrated academic health system in the northeastern United States, in order to probe differences in the clinic’s no-show rates, before and after the implementation of digital self-scheduling. Using chi-square tests for independence, the study revealed a decrease in the no-show rate after digital self-scheduling was implemented. In addition, the no-show rate was lower for appointments that were scheduled using digital self-scheduling versus appointments that were scheduled using traditional office-assisted scheduling. The result of this study contributes to positive social change by acknowledging that patients are consumers who thrive on the digital convenience that they already experience in their daily lives and contributes to enhancing patient and provider communications. The use of digital self-scheduling and other digital transformation tools contributes to the holistic improvement of the patient experience and in increasing provider and care setting support staff satisfaction.

Download

Share

 
COinS