Reducing Non -Attendance of Appointments at Pineda Dental Clinic

Abstract

Background: Non-attendance of appointments at outpatient clinics is a common problem that causes clinics’ inefficiency and delays subsequent to patients to access health care services. Aim: This study sought to reduce the non-attendance of appointments at Pineda Dental Clinic from 26.94% to 15%.

Method: A pre and post-intervention study design was used. The baseline data from June to November 2021 indicated that non-attendance of appointments was 26.94%, root cause analysis was conducted with a response rate of 88%(227/259) then selected interventions after the comparative analysis matrix were; the use of appointments reminders before twenty-four hours, teaching patients the impacts of missing appointments to their health and how it impacts clinic’s performance and giving appointment cards to all patients

Results: During six months of intervention from November 2022 to April 2023, the use of appointments reminders in PDC has improved from 28% to 95% and the use of appointment cards at 100% together with sensitizing patients to keep their appointments has significantly reduced non-attendance of appointment from 26.94% to 13.52% (P=0.000334).

Conclusion: The results of this project with cost-effective interventions used, have proved to be effective in reducing non-attendance of appointments at PDC, it is therefore recommended to other outpatients settings adopt the same intervention for addressing their inefficiencies and reduce working flow disruption caused by appointment non-attendance. Further studies are also recommended especially finding other strategies which would respond to patients who receive reminders, are given appointment cards and are sensitized to keep their appointments but still fail to attend their appointments and to communicate with the clinic in advance.