Patients, who miss an appointment in medical institutions (so called “no-shows”) cause a significant damage to the health care system. We asked 181 patients (65% female, 35% male; average age 43.7 y.) how often they missed appointments in the past 12 months. The questionnaire’s reliability was r = 0.76. We recorded 2,778 events. 3.13% of the appointment were missed and 0.43% came much too late. Most common reasons were forgetfulness and confusion of dates. Severity of pain and health-limitations correlated positive with punctuality. Among the no-shows were significantly more unemployed subjects than people with an occupation. There was no significant difference between pensioners and unemployed participants. Only 25% found memory aids such as letters, phone calls or short text messages helpful before the appointment. 60% of patients agreed to pay a fee of max. 1.- € for such a service. As charge for doctor’s loss of income due to the missed appointment a payment between 10.- € and 20.- € was judged to be appropriate. Two groups of "persons of risk" have been identified: 1. non-working people and 2. patients with poor memory. Both groups valued reminders for the appointment positively.
| Published in | Science Journal of Public Health (Volume 2, Issue 3) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.sjph.20140203.27 |
| Page(s) | 238-242 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2014. Published by Science Publishing Group |
No-Shows, Appointments, Missed Appointments, Reminders
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APA Style
Wolfgang Frank, Erich Kasten. (2014). No-Shows in Outpatient Medical Institutions in Germany – A Pilot Study about Explanations of Patients Why they Missed their Appointment. Science Journal of Public Health, 2(3), 238-242. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20140203.27
ACS Style
Wolfgang Frank; Erich Kasten. No-Shows in Outpatient Medical Institutions in Germany – A Pilot Study about Explanations of Patients Why they Missed their Appointment. Sci. J. Public Health 2014, 2(3), 238-242. doi: 10.11648/j.sjph.20140203.27
AMA Style
Wolfgang Frank, Erich Kasten. No-Shows in Outpatient Medical Institutions in Germany – A Pilot Study about Explanations of Patients Why they Missed their Appointment. Sci J Public Health. 2014;2(3):238-242. doi: 10.11648/j.sjph.20140203.27
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Download@article{10.11648/j.sjph.20140203.27,
author = {Wolfgang Frank and Erich Kasten},
title = {No-Shows in Outpatient Medical Institutions in Germany – A Pilot Study about Explanations of Patients Why they Missed their Appointment},
journal = {Science Journal of Public Health},
volume = {2},
number = {3},
pages = {238-242},
doi = {10.11648/j.sjph.20140203.27},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20140203.27},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.sjph.20140203.27},
abstract = {Patients, who miss an appointment in medical institutions (so called “no-shows”) cause a significant damage to the health care system. We asked 181 patients (65% female, 35% male; average age 43.7 y.) how often they missed appointments in the past 12 months. The questionnaire’s reliability was r = 0.76. We recorded 2,778 events. 3.13% of the appointment were missed and 0.43% came much too late. Most common reasons were forgetfulness and confusion of dates. Severity of pain and health-limitations correlated positive with punctuality. Among the no-shows were significantly more unemployed subjects than people with an occupation. There was no significant difference between pensioners and unemployed participants. Only 25% found memory aids such as letters, phone calls or short text messages helpful before the appointment. 60% of patients agreed to pay a fee of max. 1.- € for such a service. As charge for doctor’s loss of income due to the missed appointment a payment between 10.- € and 20.- € was judged to be appropriate. Two groups of "persons of risk" have been identified: 1. non-working people and 2. patients with poor memory. Both groups valued reminders for the appointment positively.},
year = {2014}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - No-Shows in Outpatient Medical Institutions in Germany – A Pilot Study about Explanations of Patients Why they Missed their Appointment AU - Wolfgang Frank AU - Erich Kasten Y1 - 2014/05/30 PY - 2014 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20140203.27 DO - 10.11648/j.sjph.20140203.27 T2 - Science Journal of Public Health JF - Science Journal of Public Health JO - Science Journal of Public Health SP - 238 EP - 242 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2328-7950 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20140203.27 AB - Patients, who miss an appointment in medical institutions (so called “no-shows”) cause a significant damage to the health care system. We asked 181 patients (65% female, 35% male; average age 43.7 y.) how often they missed appointments in the past 12 months. The questionnaire’s reliability was r = 0.76. We recorded 2,778 events. 3.13% of the appointment were missed and 0.43% came much too late. Most common reasons were forgetfulness and confusion of dates. Severity of pain and health-limitations correlated positive with punctuality. Among the no-shows were significantly more unemployed subjects than people with an occupation. There was no significant difference between pensioners and unemployed participants. Only 25% found memory aids such as letters, phone calls or short text messages helpful before the appointment. 60% of patients agreed to pay a fee of max. 1.- € for such a service. As charge for doctor’s loss of income due to the missed appointment a payment between 10.- € and 20.- € was judged to be appropriate. Two groups of "persons of risk" have been identified: 1. non-working people and 2. patients with poor memory. Both groups valued reminders for the appointment positively. VL - 2 IS - 3 ER -
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