Improving Access to Eye Care in Glaucoma Patients

Wills Eye

Status: Completed

Conditions: Glaucoma

Treatments: Behavioral: Reminder letter Intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02982629

410005727

Details and patient eligibility

About

1. To design and develop a prospective, randomized pilot study utilizing information from electronic medical records to address follow-up adherence and reduce the gap between recommended and actual follow-up adherence in patients with glaucoma.
2. To evaluate the impact of a telephone-based intervention on follow-up adherence in patients with glaucoma using a randomly assigned comparison with usual care.

Full description

The Wills Eye Health System (WEHS) proposes to conduct a pilot study to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of a telephone-based intervention to improve rates of follow-up exams in patients with glaucoma. The prospective, randomized, controlled trial entitled "Improving Access to Eye Care in Patients with Glaucoma" will utilize cohort data from 2013 electronic medical record information to reduce the gap between recommended and actual follow-up utilization of eye care services in glaucoma patients. Patients with glaucoma will be recruited from the Wills Eye Glaucoma clinic who were seen between 3/1/13 and 10/31/13. A recall list will be generated for patients who have scheduled follow-up appointments from 9/1/13 to 11/30/13. These patients will be randomly assigned to the "Usual Care" group or "Intervention" group. The primary outcome will be successful attendance at a follow-up appointment within an appropriate time frame. This intervention is based on a CDC funded project at Wills to improve access to eye care in patients with diabetes. Thus, this pilot study will test the efficacy of a telephone-based intervention to improve follow-up adherence in patients with glaucoma by improving access to eye care.

Enrollment: 250 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 21+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Attended Wills Eye Glaucoma Clinic from 9/1/12 and 10/31/13

Exclusion criteria

• Any medical condition that would preclude the subject from providing reliable and valid data.
• Recommended to f/u in less than 1 month time period.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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250 participants in 2 patient groups, including a placebo group

Usual Care

Placebo Comparator group

Description:

Patients in this group do not receive any letters or phone calls after missing follow-up appointment.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Reminder letter Intervention

Reminder Letter Intervention

Active Comparator group

Description:

Patients in this group receive letters and phone calls after missing follow-up appointment to reschedule the appointment.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Reminder letter Intervention