Impact of Physician Names on Missed Appointments in Psychiatry Resident Clinics: A Pilot Study

Abstract

The authors undertook the current study to investigate patient and provider factors and their relationship to patient show rates. The authors included as eligible all new patient appointments in psychiatry resident clinics at a large academic hospital-based psychiatry clinic between July 2017 and June 2018. Prior to data extraction, a resident focus group ( n = 5) was conducted to examine ways in which patients might perceive provider names as a proxy for implicit bias. Multilevel logistic regression modeling was used with appointment show status (yes/no) as the binary dependent variable. Data were extracted for a total of 14 providers from July 2017 through June 2018, yielding 295 scheduled new-patient evaluation appointments; of these, 102 (35%) were missed (“no-shows”). Ambiguous-sounding provider names were associated with lower patient show rates compared with non–ambiguous-sounding provider names (odds ratio = 0.41, P < .01). Our results demonstrate some relationship between provider name ambiguity and patient no-show rate. Our small sample size and high prevalence of ambiguous-sounding names does not permit further characterization of name types, although the question may warrant further study. [ Psychiatr Ann . 2021;51(10):486–491.]