Promotion of Patient Medical Attendance Using a Microcomputer

Indigent care facilities are often faced with very poor patient appointment compliance and have little or no staff to correct the problem. Automation of patient tracking and communication with referrers was accomplished with a Macintosh Computer. The Delta Patient Management/Billing System is an integrated relational data base with appointment scheduling, medical record keeping, patient tracking, case identification, epidemiological data generation and medical billing capabilities. The efficacy of the system in recalling patients who have failed their appointments was demonstrated with the finding that 27% of rescheduled patients, above controls, returned for a medical visit. The income for patients attending rescheduled failed appointments was only 62% of that for patients who attended their appointments regularly and did not require rescheduling. Thus, it can be concluded that the system is reaching its targeted population. One of the strongest arguments for the use of computerized patient tracking is accountability, both on the part of the physician and also on the part of the parent/patient. Computerization will make it more difficult for patients to become lost to follow-up and for clinic personnel to ignore non-compliant parent/patients.