Executive Summary

Executive Summary

Patient's health is greatly affected by failure to show up on appointments. It also disturbs the health care delivery system, and adds to the meager use of resources. Clear knowledge and understanding of the reasons why patients do not show up on their appointments is a prerequisite in designing policy to deal with unmet needs of patient along with the effective delivery of health services. No shows are inconvenience for the physician and pose a risk to the patient's health. To have policy for “no show” is one of the prime responsibilities of hospital authorities. Some of the known reasons behind the missing appointments are education level, marital status, employment status and the inability to get to the clinic in time. There is a strong relationship between missing appointments and employment status (Barron, 1980).

There is a wide range of lifestyle and demographic characteristics that are associated with no shows. They include referral source, patient's age, language barrier, illness and many others. One national study conducted in 1999 revealed that over 21 percent of patients have been reported for missed appointments. One major reason for such a high percentage is automated system of appointments and unreasonable scheduling. Patients with double booking also create inconvenience for the physician and other patients.

It is important to educate the patients with chronic diseases that their health status and medications must be examined and monitored on regular basis even if they feel they are fine. In this connection, medical practitioners can develop relationships with patients through pre-appointment screening, such as reviewing history. Though this requires some time, but it will engage the patient in relationship with the physician (Forjuoh, et al.,2001).

With this, the strategy for eliminating the problem may include making phone calls to the patients at the time of appointment. Some of ...