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The Egyptian Journal of Otolaryngology
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An analysis of causes behind missed scheduled appointments at outpatient ENT clinics

The Egyptian Journal of Otolaryngology volume 31, pages 1–3 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

Objectives

To investigate missed appointments in Alhada Armed Forces hospitals (Prince Mansour hospital).

Study Design

Prospective, descriptive series.

Setting

ENT out-patients clinics.

Method

Analysis of the clinic attendance statistics to identify patients who missed appointments.

Results

Of 1275 patient booking over the duration of study, (60.30%) of patients kept their appointments at the clinics, while 40.70% missed appointments, and of the 519 patients, 16(3%) had no response to telephone calls or coming back to clinics. The youngest age group, 10 to 20 years, showed the highest rate of missed appointments, being 26.2%. Afternoon appointments had higher rate of no-show (63.5%) than morning (36.5%). Reasons given by no-show patients for missing their appointments are presented in figure (1). Unavailability of transportation constituted the highest proportion of reasons of no-show (26.4%) followed by forgetting the appointments (13.7%). The third frequently cited reason was work commitments (13.3%). These three reasons represented of the (53.6%) of the total reasons of the no-show.

Conclusion

The 40.70% missed appointment rate is largely due to transport constraints. The authors seek to identify patients at risk of missed appointments and suggest interventions to decrease this incidence.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of ENT, Armed Forces Hospitals, Taif Region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

    Ashraf Amin Kasem MBCHB, MS, MRCS (ENT) (Glasg) DO-HNS (Glasg) (Fellow), Talal Saud Althobaiti, Dhaif Allah S. Al-Jeaid & Saleh Mayoof Al-Osaimi

Authors
  1. Ashraf Amin Kasem MBCHB, MS, MRCS (ENT) (Glasg) DO-HNS (Glasg)
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  2. Talal Saud Althobaiti
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  3. Dhaif Allah S. Al-Jeaid
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  4. Saleh Mayoof Al-Osaimi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ashraf Amin Kasem MBCHB, MS, MRCS (ENT) (Glasg) DO-HNS (Glasg).

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Conflicts of interest

None declared.

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Kasem, A.A., Althobaiti, T.S., Al-Jeaid, D.A.S. et al. An analysis of causes behind missed scheduled appointments at outpatient ENT clinics. Egypt J Otolaryngol 31, 1–3 (2015). https://doi.org/10.4103/1012-5574.152701

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.4103/1012-5574.152701

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