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An audit of the factors involved in new patient non‐attendance in a dermatology out‐patient department
Author(s) -
BOTTOMLEY W. W.,
COTTERILL J. A.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
clinical and experimental dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.587
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1365-2230
pISSN - 0307-6938
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2230.1994.tb02691.x
Subject(s) - medicine , attendance , audit , prospective cohort study , forgetting , out patient department , pediatrics , family medicine , emergency medicine , surgery , economics , economic growth , linguistics , philosophy , management
Summary Non‐attendance at out‐patient clinics, although common, has received relatively little attention. A prospective study was undertaken to assess the extent of the problem of non‐attendances of newly referred dermatological patients in a single dermatological out‐patient clinic over a 12‐month period. The overall non‐attendance rate was found to be 19%. There were no apparent significant differences between the groups of attending and non‐attending patients when compared statistically. A survey of those patients who failed to attend suggested that inadequate communication between the hospital and patients (17%) and patients forgetting their appointment date (23%) may be factors that are amenable to administrative changes.