Use of electronic pagers to recall patients undergoing outpatient-based chemotherapy.

Long waiting times while receiving chemotherapy in an outpatient setting have been identified as contributing to patient dissatisfaction and discomfort by a number of authors. Following an observation of this practice in a non-medical establishment, and as part of our service improvement program, we introduced the use of message pagers to recall patients in our chemotherapy outpatient service. We audited the impact of this intervention by means of questionnaires directed at patients and nursing staff.