Risk Factors for Missed Appointments at a Multisite Academic Urban Urogynecology Practice

Missed appointments lead to decreased clinical productivity and poor health outcomes.

The objectives of this study were to describe sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of patients who miss urogynecology appointments and identify risk factors for missed appointments.

We conducted an institutional review board-approved case-control study of women 18 years or older scheduled for a urogynecology appointment at 1 of 4 sites associated with an urban academic tertiary care center over 4 months. Patients were included in the missed appointment group if they canceled their appointments the same day or did not show up for them. For comparison, we included a control group consisting of patients immediately preceding or following the ones who missed their appointments with the same visit type. Logistic regression was used to identify risk factors for missed appointments.

Four hundred twenty-six women were included: 213 in the missed appointment group and 213 in the control group. Women who missed appointments were younger (60 years [interquartile range (IQR), 47-72 years] vs 69 years [IQR, 59-78 years], P < 0.0001). More women in the missed appointment group were Hispanic (24.4% vs 13.1%) and non-Hispanic Black (7.5% vs 3.8%, P = 0.009), had Medicaid (17.4% vs 6.57%, P = 0.0006), missed previous appointments (24.9% vs 11.7% P = 0.0005), waited longer for appointments (39 days [IQR, 23.5-55.5 days] vs 30.5 days [IQR, 12.8-47.0 days], P = 0.002), and made appointments for urinary incontinence (44.1% vs 26.8%, P = 0.0002). On multivariate logistic regression, women with Medicaid had significantly higher odds of missing appointments (adjusted OR, 2.11 [1.04-4.48], P = 0.044).

Women with Medicaid were more likely to miss urogynecology appointments. Further research is needed to address barriers this group faces when accessing care.