Related Experiment Videos
Why do patients default from follow-up at a genitourinary clinic?: a multivariate analysis
Insights
Default rates at genitourinary medicine clinics are comparable to other hospital clinics. Appointment timing and health advisor contact are key factors for reducing patient non-attendance.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Genitourinary Medicine
- Healthcare Management
Background:
- Patient default from follow-up appointments poses a challenge in healthcare settings.
- Understanding factors influencing non-attendance is crucial for improving clinic efficiency and patient outcomes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare default rates between genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinics and other hospital-based clinics.
- To identify factors associated with non-attendance at a city center GUM clinic.
Main Methods:
- A comparative study analyzing default rates across GUM, general medical, general surgical, and dermatology clinics.
- A prospective case-control study using multivariate logistic regression to analyze GUM clinic non-attenders versus attenders.
- Data collected on appointment timing, diagnosis, prior clinic contact, domestic factors, and demographics.
Main Results:
- The GUM clinic default rate was 15%, similar to medical (13%), surgical (15%), and dermatology (14%) clinics.
- Significant factors associated with non-attendance at the GUM clinic included appointment timing, residence area, health advisor contact frequency, and patient age.
- Factors like diagnosis, sexual orientation, referral source, and employment status were not significantly linked to defaulting.
Conclusions:
- Appointment scheduling and interaction with health advisors are modifiable factors that can potentially decrease GUM clinic non-attendance.
- Targeting these controllable variables may improve patient adherence to follow-up appointments.
Objective:
Firstly to compare the proportion of patients defaulting from follow up at a genitourinary medicine clinic with those attending other hospital based clinics. Secondly to determine which factors are associated with non attendance at a city centre genitourinary medicine clinic.
Methodology:
The proportion of patients who defaulted at a genitourinary medicine clinic, a general medical clinic, a general surgical clinic and a dermatology clinic during March 1995 were compared. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed comparing attenders and non attenders at the genitourinary medicine clinic with respect to time of appointment, diagnosis, previous contacts with clinic staff, potential domestic commitments and patient demographics in a prospective case control study.
Results:
The default rate at the genitourinary medicine clinic was 15% compared with 13%, 15% and 14% for medical, surgical and dermatology clinics respectively. Patients who defaulted from the genitourinary medicine clinic (167) were compared with 172 attenders and significant differences found for timing of appointments, area of residence, frequency of counselling by the health advisor and age of the patient. Other factors such as the diagnosis, whether a woman had children, sexual orientation, whether negative results had been given over the phone, source of referral, sex of patient, employment status and the weather were not found to be significantly associated with defaulting from an appointment.
Conclusions:
The time of the appointment and being seen by a health advisor were the only variables identified over which the clinic has control and therefore could potentially reduce non attendance rates.