Completion of Referral to Psychiatric Services by Inner City Residents

Aspects of the patient intake process in a psychotherapy clinic

“…Whatever the mediating factor might be, over-long waiting lists have been held responsible by many authors for the high pre-assessment and pre-treatment dropout rates to be found in both psychiatry and psychotherapy clinics (Dengrove & Kutash, 1950; Rogers, 1960; Chameides & Yamamoto, 1973; Noonan, 1973;Malan, 1976~). Confirmation for this view has been found in the studies of Korner (1963), Raynes & Warren (1971), Craig et al (1974) and Skuse (1975). In the present study, the short waiting period of a maximum of 2 weeks prior to the initial assessment interview most likely accounts for the low pre-assessment dropout rate recorded (9 per cent, see Tables 4 and 5).…”

Customer Approach and Walk-in Clinic Drop-Out Phenomenon

“…Drop-outs in a Psychiatril clinic have been found to be associated with a lack of congruence between what thi patient expects and what. the therapist/clinic provides, despite the fact that thl subsequent appointments were given in consultation with the patient (2,5,9,12) In our study the customer approach was significantly related to outcome measure; even when the patient became a drop-out (for Gr. 1 r = 0.32 p < 0.01 and for Gr.…”

Specialty Referral Completion Among Primary Care Patients: Results From the ASPN Referral Study

“…Scheduling the appointment with the specialist at the time the referral was made had a strong positive effect on referral completion. Other researchers have found a similar association between assistance in scheduling the specialist's appointment and referral completion for youth referred from school-based health centers, 5 patients referred from an emergency department to outpatient psychiatry, 14 and patients referred for mammograms. 15 Staff or physician scheduling of the specialty referral appointment is low-cost, practical, and, as this study shows, an important determinant of referral completion.…”