In this study the aim was to identify patient demographic, socioeconomic and appointment characteristics associated with missed appointments in paediatric ophthalmology at a tertiary care academic ophthalmology centre and assess appointment reminder method effects. This was a retrospective cross-sectional study comprising a one-year study period which included 8083 scheduled paediatric patient appointments. There was attendance of 6638 patients and 1445 non-attendance (17.9%). Patients aged under 11 years had greater odds of non-attendance than those aged 12–17 years. There was no difference for gender. There were greater non-attendance odds for Black, Other or Unavailable, for those with language preference of Spanish, Nepali and Other, and for Hispanic and Other ethnicity. There was strong association between non-attendance and payer type; non-attendance was 3.5 times more for patients with medical assistance and 6.5 times more for those with no insurance cover vs those with private insurance. An association was found for lower salary and further distance from the ophthalmology clinic. Greater non-attendance was noted in the months of September and December, Wednesday and Thursday and for new and procedural appointments. For appointment reminders the least effective communication method was email. There was a significant decrease in non-attendance for patients receiving phone call, text message or any reminder prior to the appointment. Limitations of this study were its retrospective nature, no time-of-day information for appointments, no patient disability information and transport information, and being a single-centre study.
Associations with non-attendance for paediatric patients attending eye appointments
Reviewed by Fiona Rowe
Predictors of no-show status: an analysis of paediatric ophthalmology patients at an academic ophthalmology department in the US.
CONTRIBUTOR
Fiona Rowe (Prof)
Institute of Population Health, University of Liverpool, UK.
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