Nawaf Alokeil*, Shatha AlGhaleb, Mohammed Alshehri, Fahad Alromaih, Ahmad Almalky, Fahad Alkhayal, Azzam Alotaibi, Faris Alotaibi, Abdulelah Alageel, Nawaf Alhussain, Abdulaziz Bin Rsheed, Aboud AlAboud, Mohammed Abdulmogith, Maha Alshehri, Nawaf Abanami, and Sarah Abuhaimed, Mohammad Ali Algarni, Majed Al Hojailan and Mostafa Kofi

FCM Department, FCM-PSMMC, Saudi Arabia

*Corresponding Author: Nawaf Alokeil, FCM Department, FCM-PSMMC, Saudi Arabia.

Received: October 25, 2023; Published: November 09, 2023

Abstract

Introduction: Missed appointment and late appointment has been a major problem for healthcare management. This study aims to describe the problem of missed appointments and late appointments in PHC. Patients who make an appointment at a clinic but do not keep it and do not notify clinic staff in a timely manner are referred to as “no-shows” When making an appointment, “no-show” can be an important risk predictor of patient dissatisfaction with their care and lower quality of care. Clinics of all types, sizes, and practices face the widespread problem of “no-shows,” and no-show rates are a significant concern for healthcare providers. In addition, “no-shows” negatively impact patient health and clinic workflow.

Objectives: To describe the frequency of late and missed appointments in general clinics in PHC. And to compare with national and international standards

Methods: Review of patient appointments, appointment no-shows, and delays in the primary health care center were reviewed. A description of such parameters related to appointments was analyzed.

Results: All 42592 patient appointments in PHC general clinics were reviewed over a duration of six months in 2023; out of which 30588 patients attended on time; 5234 patients were late for the appointment and 6770 patients did not attend for the appointments. An average monthly patient attendance of 70.1%; an average late attendance for the appointment was 12.9%, and an average non-attendance of 16.9% was recorded for these six-month reviews of records in the PHC center. April was the lowest of attending on time and highest of did not attend.

Conclusions: There is an average of patients attending on time in PHC of 70% average late attendance for the appointment was 12.9%; and an average non-attendance of 16.9%. April was the highest month of average late or non-attendance for appointments by patients in PHC. There is a need for qualitative and quantitative large-scale studies to identify causes for non-attendance and late attendance and plan for interventions for control of such major challenges to healthcare resources and to healthcare decision-makers.

 Keywords: No-show; Delay; Appointments; PHC

References

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Citation

Citation: Nawaf Alokeil., et al. “Appointments Delay and No-show Among Patients in Primary Health Care Centers, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia”.Acta Scientific Medical Sciences 7.12 (2023): 10-18.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2023 Nawaf Alokeil., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.