Reducing the incidence of non-attendance at general surgical out-patient clinic

Awe J.A.A¹* and Saimeh H²

¹Associate Professor of Surgery and Consultant General Surgeon, Department of Surgery; College of Health Sciences, Igbinedion University; Okada; Edo State. Nigeria.

²Senior Surgical Registrar, Northern Area Armed Forces Hospital, King Khalid Military City, Hafr Al-Batin 31991, Saudi Arabia.

*Corresponding Author E-mail: doset2007@yahoo.com

Accepted 25 September, 2013

Abstract

Non-compliant with outpatient appointments are a drain on resources. It is a common source of inefficiency in any health service, wasting time and resources and potentially lengthening waiting lists unnecessarily. Studies examining characteristics of non-attendance at hospital outpatients have given inconsistent results. Given the current economic climate, methods needed to be employed to reduce non-attendance. The commonest reasons for non-attendance given include patient at work 250 cases (25%); forgot the appointment 200 cases (20%); no transport 125 cases (12.5%) living outside Military barrack 200 cases (20.0%); fear of having an operation 100 cases (10.0%); lost appointment 50 cases (5%) and no reason 30 cases (3.0%). We undertook this prospective study asking non-attenders at the surgical outpatient clinics of two Consultant Surgeons for a period of one year from 1st April 2007 to 31st March 2008 why they missed their appointments in view of the above findings. Reduction in the incidence of non-attendance could be achieved through institutional factors of giving correct appointment details, communication between hospital and patients should be checked meticulously and found to be correct before appointments are handed over to the patients. There should be adequate counseling by medical social workers in allaying fears of patients regarding the phobia of undergoing operations. Also significant improvement in the proportion of patients attending outpatient’s appointments can be made by simple reminder telephone calls one to three days before the actual appointment date; and short message service (SMS) text messages to patient’s mobile telephones.

Keywords: Incidence, Non-Attendance, Surgical Outpatient, Clinic.