Pearls for Practice. Reasons for Missing Appointments in an Outpatient Clinic for Indigent Adults

Pieper, Barbara; DiNardo, Ellen

doi:10.1111/j.1745-7599.1998.tb00519.x

Cited by 7 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…The findings are consistent with other studies, which also mention forgetting as the major reason for missing clinic appointments. 7,9,11 Some of the reasons given for not attending clinic appointments are impossible for the clinic to address, such as bad weather, funerals and travel out of town. In such cases, it is recommended that the patients be encouraged to reschedule their clinic appointment before the set date.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…11 However, a more comprehensive intervention is required in the Kalafong situation, where some patients have access to cellular phones, some have landline telephone access, and others do not have ready access to telephonic contact. Some of the latter, on registration, had given the cellular phone numbers of their next of kin or the landline telephone numbers of their neighbours.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Care providers need to be aware of both their positive and negative communication skills, which may also impact on clinic attendance. 11 The recruitment process for the present study focused on those patients who came to the clinics without an appointment, having missed a prior appointment, as well as those with cellular phones or landline telephones. This might be a limitation on the study, as nonattendant patients who did not attend one of the clinics throughout the study period, and who had no cellular phone or landline telephone were excluded from the study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[7][8][9][10][11] A Medline search revealed that only a few studies on compliance with appointments have been done in Africa. Among these, none has been done specifically for diabetic patients.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Factors influencing non-attendance of clinic appointments in diabetic patients at a Gauteng hospital in 2007/2008

Ngwenya

Zyl

Webb

2009

Journal of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes of South Afri

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Factors influencing non-attendance of clinic appointments in diabetic patients at a Gauteng hospital in 2007/2008

Ngwenya

Zyl

Webb

2009

Journal of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes of South Afri

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Without the benefit of a cancellation call, PASA deprives other patients of the opportunity to schedule an appointment[8]. On the other hand, PASA may indicate barriers to healthcare[9], depriving our most vulnerable patients of needed specialized pain services[1,10,11]. The reasons for missed appointments often without a cancelation call, have long been studied[12], but remain elusive[13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A pragmatic trial to improve adherence with scheduled appointments in an inner-city pain clinic by human phone calls in the patient's preferred language

Andreae

Nair

Gabry

et al. 2017

Journal of Clinical Anesthesia

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Study Objective We investigated if human reminder phone calls in the patient’s preferred language increase adherence with scheduled appointments in an inner-city chronic pain clinic. We hypothesized that language and cultural incongruence is the underlying mechanism to explain poor attendance at clinic appointments in underserved Hispanic populations. Design Pragmatic randomized controlled clinical trial Setting Innercity academic chronic pain clinic with a diverse, predominantly African-American and Hispanic population Patients All (n=963) adult patients with a scheduled first appointment between October 2014 and October 2015 at the Montefiore Pain Center in the Bronx, New York were enrolled. Interventions Patients were randomized to receive a human reminder call in their preferred language before their appointment, or no contact. Measurements We recorded patients’ demographic characteristics and as primary outcome attendance as scheduled, failure to attend and/or cancellation calls. We fit Bayesian and classical multinomial logistic regression models to test if the intervention improved adherence with scheduled appointments. Main Results Among the 953 predominantly African American and Hispanic/Latino patients, 475 patients were randomly selected to receive a language-congruent, human reminder call, while 478 were assigned to receive no prior contact, (after we excluded 10 patients, scheduled for repeat appointments). In the experimental group, 275 patients adhered to their scheduled appointment, while 84 cancelled and 116 failed to attend. In the control group, 249 patients adhered to their scheduled appointment, 31 cancelled and 198 failed to attend. Human phone reminders in the preferred language increased adherence (RR 1.89, CI95% [1.42, 1.42], (p<0.01). The intervention seemed particularly effective in Hispanic patients, supporting our hypothesis of cultural congruence as possible underlying mechanism. Conclusions Human reminder phone calls prior in the patient’s preferred language increased adherence with scheduled appointments. The intervention facilitated access to much needed care in an ethnically diverse, resource poor population, presumably by overcoming language barriers.

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Exploring factors influencing non‐attendance at the diabetes clinic and service improvement strategies from patients' perspectives

2012

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A significant number of people with type 1 diabetes do not attend their clinic appointments. This study investigated the reasons underlying this decision and explored possible service improvement strategies.This was a cross‐sectional telephone survey among all patients with type 1 diabetes missing at least one appointment at a diabetes clinic between 1 October 2009 and 30 September 2010. Patients were asked two questions: why they did not attend the appointment and how attendance could be improved.The initial ‘did not attend’ (DNA) rate for all appointments was 17.6% (808/4595 appointments). Of these, the largest number were missed by patients (n=252) with type 1 diabetes. After excluding 79 patients no longer under the service, 126/173 (72.8%) were able to be contacted and answered the questions. Forgetting the appointment was the most frequent response (34.9%). Many patients advised not to send appointment reminder letters too far ahead of appointments (12.7%, 16) and to send a text message reminder (26.2%, 33) two weeks before the appointment.The findings suggest that there is a role for improving the administrative approach to patients' appointments, reminding patients in advance and improving communication between hospital staff and patients. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons.

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Pearls for Practice. Reasons for Missing Appointments in an Outpatient Clinic for Indigent Adults

Cited by 7 publications

References 9 publications

Factors influencing non-attendance of clinic appointments in diabetic patients at a Gauteng hospital in 2007/2008

Factors influencing non-attendance of clinic appointments in diabetic patients at a Gauteng hospital in 2007/2008

A pragmatic trial to improve adherence with scheduled appointments in an inner-city pain clinic by human phone calls in the patient's preferred language

Exploring factors influencing non‐attendance at the diabetes clinic and service improvement strategies from patients' perspectives

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