Abstract
BackgroundFailure to keep outpatient medical appointments results in inefficiencies and costs. The objective of this study is to show the factors in an existing electronic database that affect failed appointments and to develop a predictive probability model to increase the effectiveness of interventions.MethodsA retrospective study was conducted on outpatient clinic attendances at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore from 2000 to 2004. 22864 patients were randomly sampled for analysis. The outcome measure was failed outpatient appointments according to each patient's latest appointment.ResultsFailures comprised of 21% of all appointments and 39% when using the patients' latest appointment. Using odds ratios from the mutliple logistic regression analysis, age group (0.75 to 0.84 for groups above 40 years compared to below 20 years), race (1.48 for Malays, 1.61 for Indians compared to Chinese), days from scheduling to appointment (2.38 for more than 21 days compared to less than 7 days), previous failed appointments (1.79 for more than 60% failures and 4.38 for no previous appointments, compared with less than 20% failures), provision of cell phone number (0.10 for providing numbers compared to otherwise) and distance from hospital (1.14 for more than 14 km compared to less than 6 km) were significantly associated with failed appointments. The predicted probability model's diagnostic accuracy to predict failures is more than 80%.ConclusionA few key variables have shown to adequately account for and predict failed appointments using existing electronic databases. These can be used to develop integrative technological solutions in the outpatient clinic.
Highlights
Failure to keep outpatient medical appointments results in inefficiencies and costs
To account for the varying frequency and duration of follow-up between patients, we analysed past history of failed appointments as a proportion of all scheduled appointments, allowing us to use the entire database for the predicted probability model
Failed appointments accounted for 21% of all appointments in the database
Summary
Failure to keep outpatient medical appointments results in inefficiencies and costs. The resulting economic costs range from £65 per failed appointment in the United Kingdom in 1997 [2] to 3–14% of total outpatient clinic income in the United States [8]. This problem may be compounded if non-compliance with appointments is an (page number not for citation purposes). Most studies on failed appointments focused on the socio-economic and demographic factors that affect failures [1,10,11,12,13]. Almost all studies were for specific specialties in small-scaled settings [2,5,8,9,10,11,12,13]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
