The St. Vincent Hospital Group in Dublin has reduced its 'did-not-attend' (DNA) rate by 30 % after introducing a messaging system that notifies patients of their appointments and allows them to reschedule.

This messaging application - developed by a software company with connected healthcare systems and its application partner - is based on a high performance object database and enables two way text communications between staff and patients.

St. Vincent's receives around 144 000 patients each year and has an average 'did-not-attend' rate of 23 %, which is equal to around 30 000 missed appointments. Since the launch of the service, the rates have been reduced by 30 %, which is expected to save around €750 000 a year, based on the estimation that each missed appointment costs €80.

The hospitals used the software company's integration service supplier to create an interface between their Patient Administration System (PAS) and the text messaging service in order to enable users to access the PAS on demand. The trust is now considering using the messaging system for other communication needs including within the hospital's contingency plans for a pandemic.

Jim Brennan, the managing director of the integration service stated that the system "provided an excellent framework to analyse, gather and transmit the Patient Booking details in a fast, secure and cost-effective way. We are working to provide similar integration in other sites", he added.

Further information:

• Original News Article - e-Health Europe