ISSN - 0973-0958

Pediatric Oncall Journal

Non-Attendance at Paediatric Outpatient Appointments in Brighton: a Quality Improvement Project https://www.pediatriconcall.com/Journal/images/journal_cover.jpg
Non-Attendance at Paediatric Outpatient Appointments in Brighton: a Quality Improvement Project
Presented in National Medical Students Paediatric Conference (NMSPC) 2013, Brighton, UK
Biggart R, Hallows MR.
Royal Alexandra Children`s Hospital, Brighton, UK.
Background
It had been noted that there are a considerable number of non-attendances at paediatric outpatient appointments in Brighton despite appointment letters and SMS reminders sent a week before.

Aim
To determine the reasons why families do not attend their appointments with a view to change the service provided to achieve better patient outcomes and to maximise NHS (National Health Service) financial resources.

Method
Over a 2 month period the families of the children who did not attend (DNA) were telephoned and were asked a series of predetermined standardised questions.

Results
Between the 19th November- 14th December 2012, there were 107 DNAs whilst between 14th January- 15th February 2013 there were 170. In this second month the number of families who were registered for SMS messaging was also recorded. 17.6% were not registered, whilst 17.1% of those whom had given consent had no mobile-phone number on record. The main reasons for not attending, according to those who were contacted across the 2 months, are forgetfulness (42.4%), the hospital not informing families of the appointment (20.2%), the hospital not recording that parents had rescheduled (15.1%), that parents were too busy to take their child (11.1%), that the child was too unwell to attend (6.1%) and other reasons (5.1%). Nearly 47% of families did not answer when called, but correct contact information is an issue as 17.7% of the DNAs had an incorrect number recorded or no number recorded at all.

Conclusion
The hospital must maximise its resources to remind parents of attendance. The results of the audit suggest that change the SMS reminder to 2 days before the appointment, encourage parents to register for SMS reminders and NHS staff check that contact details are correct. Finally the accuracy of informing patients of appointments and recording alterations must be improved.
 
DOI No: https://doi.org/10.7199/ped.oncall.2013.27S

Cite this article as:
R B, MR H. Non-Attendance at Paediatric Outpatient Appointments in Brighton: a Quality Improvement Project. Pediatr Oncall J. 2013;10. doi: 10.7199/ped.oncall.2013.27S
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Disclaimer: The information given by www.pediatriconcall.com is provided by medical and paramedical & Health providers voluntarily for display & is meant only for informational purpose. The site does not guarantee the accuracy or authenticity of the information. Use of any information is solely at the user's own risk. The appearance of advertisement or product information in the various section in the website does not constitute an endorsement or approval by Pediatric Oncall of the quality or value of the said product or of claims made by its manufacturer.
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0