Recruiting

Behavioral Framing

Sponsor:

UCLA

Code:

NCT07314697

Conditions

Primary Care

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Interventions

Behaviorally informed appointment communications

Control appointment communications

Study Details

Brief summary:

This is a prospective clinical trial evaluating how behaviorally informed message framing can improve patient on-time arrival for outpatient visits. This trial is being implemented in conjunction with UCLA Health's broader operational quality improvement (QI) efforts to enhance clinic flow and patient experience.

The main question it aims to answer is how displaying an explicit arrival time (set to 15 minutes before the scheduled appointment) affects when patients arrive for their appointments, compared to a control condition where only the appointment time is displayed and patients are encouraged to arrive 15 min before the appointment (without an explicit arrival time).

Conditions

Primary Care

Study ID

NCT07314697

Start date

Jan 5, 2026

Status verified date

Feb, 2026

Completion date

Jul, 2026

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Jul, 2026

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • In-person outpatient appointments with clinicians at UCLA Health that fall into the study period
  • Appointments scheduled for the department specialties of Primary Care, Pediatrics, or Internal Medicine, Med Peds
  • Has an active MyChart status
  • Opted in to receive SMS communications from UCLA Health
  • Appointments classified as the following visit types:

  • Return
  • Well adult (physical)
  • Well child return
  • New
  • Well adult new (physical)
  • Well child (new)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Appointments at clinics that are not scheduled through the Patient Access Organization

Study Design

Enrollment

300000 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Health Services Research

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

active comparator: Arm 1: Appointment time

Patients will receive appointment communications via the MyChart patient portal and Hello World text notifications that display their appointment time.

experimental: Arm 2: Arrival time

Patients will receive appointment communications via the MyChart patient portal and Hello World text notifications that display their expected arrival time, set to 15 minutes before their scheduled appointment time.

Interventions

Behaviorally informed appointment communications

In the MyChart patient portal homepage, the appointment widget will show "Arrive by \[Arrival Time\]," replacing the standard "Starts at \[Appointment Time\]" display. The appointment details page will show appointment time, along with a reminder to "Arrive by \[Arrival Time\]."

The Hello World text notifications will tell patients: "Your visit is scheduled for \[Date\]. Arrive by \[Arrival Time\]."

Control appointment communications

In the MyChart patient portal homepage, the appointment widget will show "Starts at \[Appointment Time\]." The appointment details page will display appointment time, along with the instructions to arrive 15 minutes before the appointment.

The Hello World text notifications will tell patients : "Your visit is scheduled for \[Date\] at \[Appointment Time\]. Please arrive 15 minutes before your appointment time."

Primary outcome measure

  • Difference between patient's arrival time and scheduled appointment time [ Time Frame: 1 day, day of appointment ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Locations

UCLA Health Department of Medicine, Quality Office

Recruiting

Los Angeles, California, United States, 90095

Contacts

Richard Leuchter

3109488828rleuchter@mednet.ucla.edu

More Information

Sponsor

University of California, Los Angeles

Last update posted

Feb 10, 2026

Last verified

Feb, 2026

Keywords

  • quality improvement

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-09. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by University of California, Los Angeles on 2026-02-10.