“Patient attendance and no-show behavior in the Primary Care setting”

1. The intervention will improve patient attendance and decrease patient no-show 2. Satisfied patients will be more motivated to return. 3. The more health problems you have, the more likely you’ll come back, but not necessarily for chronic problems. 4. The more someone reminds you about your appointment, the more likely you’ll keep it. 5. It doesn’t matter how many times you’re told about the “attendance & no- show” policies, if you make it/you make it. 6. The farther you have to go, or if someone else is sending you, or paying the tab, the less likely you’ll be motivated to attend appointments, and more likely you’ll no-show. 7. Looking at certain demographics including marital status, age, gender, and income level, there’s a good bet you’ll blow off your appointment.

FHI Scheduled Appointments & No-Show 2012/2013

Considerable demographic information was missing in the paper chart & not everything that was useful was transferred to the EMR.

Scripted BHC intervention

Standardized survey instrument good validity & reliability.

 There were NO statistically different mean scores of satisfaction between providers;  Or for days of the week; Using the ANOVA (1-way Analysis of variance) on the CSQ-8… … but Monday’s still sucked. Using the ANOVA (1-way Analysis of variance) to look at the frequency of no-show & cancellation behavior pre-intervention and post-study …  There was NO statistical difference in mean scores based on payor or source.

Satisfied patients will be more motivated to return.

Reminding you about your appointment will improve attendance and decrease no-shows … …fuggta bout it!…neither will your age or the # of diagnosed or chronic health problems. An indicator that +correlates with no- shows is the # of scheduled appointments Chronic problems +correlate with cancellations & F/U’s kept. Previously cancelled appointments +correlates w F/U’s. F/U’s negatively correlates w/proximity.

Test of Hypothesis #1 & #2 The intervention will improve patient attendance and decrease patient no-show.

Close!!

Can a BHC social worker improve patient attendance & reduce no-shows?  The data suggests we can improve patient satisfaction with treatment to a small degree.  Previous studies have demonstrated that satisfaction is one variable that positively influences utilization.  There was not enough study participants & survey results post-study to demonstrate a statistically significant outcome but it is trending in the right direction. SUMMARY