Appointment-keeping behavior of Medicaid-enrolled pediatric dental patients in eastern Iowa.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this prospective study was to assess the appointment-keeping behavior of Medicaid-enrolled pediatric dental patients in three Eastern Iowa practices.


METHODS
During the month of October 1998, a tally was kept of all patient appointments at a private pediatric dental office, a public health dental clinic, and a university-based pediatric dentistry clinic. Patients were categorized as either Medicaid or non-Medicaid. Appointment behavior categories were defined as: On time; Failure; Late-notice Cancellation (less than 24 hours notice); and Tardy (greater than 10 minutes). The data was entered in SPSS and analyzed using the chi square statistic. Statistical significance was P < 0.05.


RESULTS
A total of 1,406 appointments were recorded for all three sites. Overall, patients on Iowa Medicaid had higher appointment failure, late-notice cancellation, and tardiness rates than non-Medicaid patients at all three clinics. However, these differences were only statistically significant for the private office and the university-based clinic. Failed appointment rates for Medicaid patients were much higher at the private office (38%) than at the other two sites.


CONCLUSIONS
Consistent with anecdotal reports from dentists, Medicaid patients had higher rates of broken appointments than did non-Medicaid patients, particularly in a private practice setting.
Iben
P
P
Department of Pediatric Dentistry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA.
Kanellis
M J
MJ
Warren
J
J
D000293:Adolescent; D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003740:Dental Clinics; D003752:Dental Health Services; D006801:Humans; D007347:Insurance, Dental; D007484:Iowa; D008484:Medicaid; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011331:Private Practice; D014481:United States