Increasing appointment keeping by reducing the call-appointment interval.

A hospital clinic moved patients up the calendar. Instead of waiting three weeks, kids got seen in one week. Some kids even got next-day slots.

Staff tracked every family for nine months. They counted who showed up and who stayed home.

Short waits doubled attendance. One-week slots lifted show-ups from a large share to a large share. Next-day slots hit a large share.

Long waits lost half the families. Three-week slots kept only a large share of appointments.

Billings et al. (1985) ran the same clinic one year later. They kept short waits and added mailed reminders plus a free parking pass. No-shows fell even more, proving the two fixes stack.

Wilkie et al. (1981) used a cheap lottery to cut employee driving. Like Pear et al. (1984), they changed a small antecedent and got big behavior change. Both studies show low-cost tweaks beat fancy rewards.

Bigby et al. (2009) trimmed medication errors with staff training and a supply box. All three papers—Pear et al. (1984), Billings et al. (1985), and Bigby et al. (2009)—share one theme: streamline the system first, then watch problems shrink.

You can copy this today. Open your schedule, slide new clients into the first open slot, even if it’s tomorrow. One week or less keeps families engaged and cuts wasted hours. No extra staff, no cost—just faster service.