Manish Shrestha, MD, of Tucson-based University of Arizona, and colleagues performed a case-control study of EHR data from Tucson, Ariz.-based Banner University Medical Center.
Researchers examined 2,331 scheduled appointments between March and October 2014.
Here’s what they found:
1. Patients missed 195 or 8.4 percent of all appointments.
2. The most common factor behind a missed appointment was longer wait time from referral to scheduled appointment.
3. Patients with primary care providers were less likely to miss an appointment than those without primary care providers.
4. Ethnicity and marital status were also associated with missed appointments.
Researchers concluded wait time, ethnicity, marital status and primary care provider status were associated with missed clinic appointments.
Researchers acknowledged more work was needed to “assess the effects of intervention strategies directed at reducing appointment wait time and increasing primary care provider-based care.”
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