Abstract
Aims and methodNon-attendance at psychiatric outpatient appointments has a substantial financial cost, and may also have clinical significance. To prevent non-attendance and formulate effective responses, its determinants need to be understood. Patient dissatisfaction with services has been suggested as a reason for non-attendance, we therefore investigated the role of patient satisfaction in attendance at psychiatric out-patients appointments. All patients booked for adult psychiatric out-patient follow-up appointments in a three-month period were studied using a brief, self-report questionnaire.ResultsSixty-three per cent (340/538) of offenders and 54% (118/219) of non-attenders responded. Responders expressed high levels of satisfaction with their treatment (92% offenders, 91% non-attenders) and with the service (96% attenders 92% non-attenders). Despite adequate statistical power, there were no statistically significant differences in satisfaction between the two groups.Clinical implicationsIn conclusion, patient satisfaction with psychiatric out-patient care was reported to be relatively high and did not seem to be an important determinant of non-attendance. Further work is needed to determine the impact of variables such as relapse and social disorganisation on attendance.
Highlights
Further work is patient service poorly are likely to leave their needed to determine the impact of variables such as physicians (Rubin et al, 1993)
Chiatric in-patients, Mclntyre et al (1989) re Developments such as the Patient's Charter have ported that patients rated the ability to leave the ward when they wished and being able to talk to clarified the need for services to attend to user staff as the most important aspects of treatment
Over 90% of both groups stated that they were satisfied or very satisfied with both the treatment from their doctor and with the general service they received in the out-patient depart ment (Table 1).The most common criticism of the service was that junior medical staff changed every six months leading to a sense of discon tinuity of treatment for patients
Summary
Satisfaction of attenders and nonattenders with their treatments at psychiatric out-patient clinics Patient dissatisfaction with services has been suggested as a reason for non-attendance, we investigated the role of patient satisfaction in attendance at psychiatric out-patients appointments. All patients booked for adult psychiatric out-patient follow-up appointments in a three-month period were studied using a brief, self-report questionnaire.
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