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Malaysian Family Physician, a peer-reviewed journal of family practice and primary care research.
Current Issue - 2006, Volume 1 Number 2 & 3
ABSTRACTS
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WHO MISS CLINIC APPOINTMENTS AND WHY?
Zailinawati AH, Ng CJ, Nik-Sherina H. Why do patients with chronic illnesses fail to keep their appointments? A telephone interview. Asia Pac J Public Health. 2006;18(1):10-5 [PubMed]Chronic illnesses are common reasons for encounters in primary care clinic. It requires regular follow-up to monitor disease control and to detect early complications. However, many patients do not adhere to their appointments; this potentially affects their health and reduces the efficiency of the appointment system. A telephone interview survey was conducted in a hospital-based family practice clinic in Kuala Lumpur to identify the reasons of default and the associated factors. The study revealed that 16.7% of the patients failed to turn up for their appointments. Out of 671 patients, 67% were successfully interviewed. Factors associated with default were male gender, Indian ethnicity, patients with coronary artery disease, patients having more than four chronic diseases, and shorter appointment intervals. The main reasons for non-attendance were: forgot the appointment dates (32.9%), not feeling well (12.3%), administrative errors (19.1%) and work or family commitments (8.2%). The majority preferred a reminder through telephone (71.4%) and letters (41.3%). Further studies would be useful to see if reminders reduce the non-attendance rate.
Reprints request: Dr Zailinawati Abu Hassan, Klinik Keluarga, No 2-1, Jalan 1A/ 27A, Section 1, Wangsa Maju, 53000, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Email:
- Zahi Alhamad
Medicine, Political Science
- 2013
Knowing the factors that are associated with missed appointments facilitates the prospective identification of patients at risk of missing appointment and helps the continuous quality improvement for future planning which may include program modifications, and formulation of strategies to reduce the risk and rate of non-attendance.
- View 1 excerpt, cites background
- B. Paterson, P. Charlton, S. Richard
Medicine
- 2010
A critical analysis of factors that affect attendance at chronic disease clinics is important to begin to develop a greater awareness and understanding among health providers of the implications and reasons for missed appointments.
Efforts should be made to reduce patient non-attendance, as this is a predictor of patients being unwell and at higher risk of relapse, and no method demonstrated clear superiority.
- Joanne Parsons, C. Bryce, H. Atherton
Medicine, Political Science
The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
- 2021
Findings from this review have potential implications for targeted interventions to address missed appointments in primary care, including those from minority ethnicity, low sociodemographic status, and younger patients.
The suggested high rates of non-attendance by Aboriginal females have potentially important policy implications in an Australian primary healthcare setting is suggested.
- N. Mm, Alnajjar Fn, Aldossary Ss
Medicine
- 2008
Few factors were found to be significantly associated with missed appointments; many of them are not under the control of the hospital and providing means of transportation and patient reminders can help reduce the problem.
Text messaging was found to be as effective as telephone reminder in reducing non-attendance in patients who required long-term follow-up for their chronic illnesses in this study and could be used as an alternative to conventional reminder systems.
Considering these factors when scheduling appointments may improve adherence to clinic attendance among HIV-infected patients in South Korea from June through December 2006 is recommended.
SHOWING 1-10 OF 20 REFERENCES
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Findings have important implications in the planning of an appointment system in an urban health centre, and they strengthen the assumption that a small number of patients cause a large number of failed appointments.
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Medicine
BMJ : British Medical Journal
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Giving new patients detailed information on when and where to come, where to park, what to bring, who they will see, and what to expect reduces non-attendance to almost 1%.
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Medicine
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A prospective study of sociodemographic characteristics and morbidity of 3,292 patients given appointments at the primary care clinics of King Khalid and King Abdulaziz University Hospitals was…
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Medicine
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Patient demographic factors associated with appointment keeping were explored in a Midwestern, urban family practice residency clinic serving 2500 patient visits each month and several identifiable factors significantly affect whether a patient will keep a clinic appointment.
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Medicine
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By examining the process, the patients, the provider, and the environment with respect to appointment keeping behavior, a more quantitative approach to research on the subject can be effected.
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Psychology
The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
- 2001
The likelihood of someone missing at least one appointment was independently associated with being female, living in a deprived area, and being a young adult, and the extent of this association was the same across all four practices.
- J. Waller, P. Hodgkin
Medicine
Family practice
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Default rates were found to be highest amongst young adults and, at a practice level, to be highly correlated with deprivation level, and strategies based on educating or punishing defaulters in order to change their behaviour may be of limited effectiveness.
- C. Bickler
Medicine
The Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
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In a two-month study in an urban general practice of eight partners, 11.7 per cent of patients failed to attend for their appointments, and the majority of the defaulters had only defaulted once in the previous 12 months.
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Medicine, Political Science
Family practice
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Evidence for effective interventions to improve attendance in primary care is lacking, and this may prove to be an area of research interest in the future.