title: Who keeps the first outpatient appointment?
abstract: The authors studied 1,106 consecutive patients who called for an initial outpatient appointment at a medical center department of psychiatry during a one-year period. The 759 (68.6%) patients who kept their initial scheduled appointment differed from the 347 (31.4%) who did not in age, previous psychiatric treatment, source of referral, chief complaint, and number of days they waited for an appointment. A telephone follow-up conducted with almost 30% of those who did not keep their initial appointment revealed that of those contacted, 26 (25%) sought other routes for psychiatric help and 23 (22%) made a subsequent contact at the facility studied.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital; D010352:Patient Dropouts / Q000523:psychology*; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors