Factors contributing to patient nonattendance at open-access endoscopy.
Patients who miss endoscopy appointments cause inefficient utilization of medical resources. Because national nonattendance rates are as high as 27% and reasons for nonattendance have not been well studied, we sought to quantitate nonattendance at our tertiary care institution. We conducted a retrospective records review of the institutional database to identify patients who did not attend a scheduled endoscopy appointment between January 2000 and December 2003. Nonattendance was defined as either not showing up for an appointment or canceling it on the day it was scheduled. At our institution, patient care assistants contact such patients to document their reasons in the database. Of 36,480 patients scheduled for outpatient endoscopy, 1,490 (4.1%) did not show up because of either facility-related (44.3%; e.g., scheduling errors) or patient-related (55.7%; e.g., noncancellation, illness, or hospitalization) reasons. Our 4.1% nonattendance rate over 4 years is considerably lower than that reported by other endoscopy centers.
Gurudu
Suryakanth R
SR
Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, Arizona 85259, USA. guruda.suryakanth@meyo.edu
Fry
Lucía C
LC
Fleischer
David E
DE
Jones
Bradford H
BH
Trunkenbolz
Marlene R
MR
Leighton
Jonathan A
JA
D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D001130:Arizona; D003113:Colonoscopy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016145:Endoscopy, Digestive System / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016312:Treatment Refusal / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*