TY - JOUR
T1 - Impact of Technical Support and Information Provision on Patient No-show Behavior
AU - Jiang, Shenyang
AU - Hu, Miao
AU - Jin, Yong Jimmy
AU - Qiu, Liangfei
AU - Duan, Yang
N1 - This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (#72402163, #72342026, #72091210, and #72091214), the Science Foundation of the Ministry of Education of China (#23YJCZH077), and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (#2023M732526).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.
PY - 2024/8/11
Y1 - 2024/8/11
N2 - Patient no-shows pose a significant challenge in healthcare operations, disrupting appointment schedules and affecting overall efficiency. Effectively addressing the challenge of reducing patient no-shows is crucial for outpatient service management. This study evaluates how the design of appointment systems affects patient no-show behavior. Using a difference-in-differences methodology, we analyze the effects of two appointment system update events—technical support and information provision—at a Chinese hospital. Our analysis reveals that technical support and information provision are associated with average reductions of 22.40% and 10.91%, respectively. To investigate the mechanisms behind these effects, we conduct a randomized controlled experiment with 233 participants. Our findings reveal that perceived effort and credibility mediate the relationship between information provision and patient no-shows. However, for technical support, only perceived credibility acts as a mediator. This study provides valuable insights for healthcare operations, offering design recommendations to address no-show behavior in hospital appointment systems.
AB - Patient no-shows pose a significant challenge in healthcare operations, disrupting appointment schedules and affecting overall efficiency. Effectively addressing the challenge of reducing patient no-shows is crucial for outpatient service management. This study evaluates how the design of appointment systems affects patient no-show behavior. Using a difference-in-differences methodology, we analyze the effects of two appointment system update events—technical support and information provision—at a Chinese hospital. Our analysis reveals that technical support and information provision are associated with average reductions of 22.40% and 10.91%, respectively. To investigate the mechanisms behind these effects, we conduct a randomized controlled experiment with 233 participants. Our findings reveal that perceived effort and credibility mediate the relationship between information provision and patient no-shows. However, for technical support, only perceived credibility acts as a mediator. This study provides valuable insights for healthcare operations, offering design recommendations to address no-show behavior in hospital appointment systems.
KW - Healthcare operations
KW - Information provision
KW - Patient no-shows
KW - System design
KW - Technical support
UR - https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10591478241276135
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85204044139&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/10591478241276135
DO - 10.1177/10591478241276135
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85204044139
SN - 1059-1478
JO - Production and Operations Management
JF - Production and Operations Management
ER -