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?:abstract
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Objective: As COVID-19 has been spreading rapidly both globally and throughout the US, public fear of contracting and spreading the virus has greatly hindered access to medical care including fertility clinics Given the time-sensitive nature of fertility treatment, especially in older women, the American Society of Reproductive Medicine published updated guidelines for clinics to safely resume fertility services on April 24, 2020 The purpose of this study was to assess whether contacting established patients who missed or cancelled follow-up appointments via phone calls improved patient retention in the midst of the COVID-19 global pandemic Design: Practice management analysis Materials and Methods: Patients undergoing fertility treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic and who missed scheduled follow-up appointments were contacted by designated clinical staff members Patients who desired to continue their treatment were offered either physical appointments or telehealth consultations The contacting staff member documented patient responses and demographics in a master spreadsheet Approximately 1-4 weeks after the patients were initially contacted, their charts were revisited to determine if the follow-up prompted patients to pursue future treatment A Chi-square test was used to compare outcomes between Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) cycles and Intrauterine Insemination (IUI) cycles Results: There were 700 patients identified who underwent 215 IUI cycles and 709 ART cycles in the form of Egg Retrieval (ER) or Embryo Transfer (ET) between January 2020 - April 2020 The average age of all patients undergoing IUI and ART was 37 9 and 39 6, respectively (p=0 001) The clinical team contacted 88 IUI and 213 ART patients who missed a follow-up appointment scheduled 2 weeks after undergoing their procedure Of those contacted, 13 (15%) IUI patients and 72 (34%) ART patients scheduled appointments with their physicians (p=0 001) Fear about COVID-19 was cited as the most common reason for missing their follow-up appointment (p=0 001) Conclusions: These data support contacting patients lost to follow-up in order to improve patient retention rates Patients who had undergone ART treatment were more likely to resume care compared to those who had IUI treatment One explanation is that IUI patients may be more comfortable delaying active treated while attempting unmonitored timed intercourse cycles at home There also may be differences in the population of patients undergoing ART vs IUI cycles, such as fertility prognosis or financial implications Tracking patients during the pandemic also identified those who became pregnant post-procedure and helped ensure early monitoring when appropriate, but this data is not presented here Lastly, the follow-up initiative provided clinical teams with a unique opportunity to assess patient satisfaction, as well as employee productivity during these difficult times References: None
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