Bid to cut no-shows

Hospital authorities are striving to cut the number of outpatients who do not keep their appointment at St Luke's Hospital, after a survey revealed that 41 per cent do not show up.

The director of hospitals, John Cachia, told The Times the Customer Care Department at St Luke's Hospital had embarked on a programme to reduce no-shows.

"This programme follows an international benchmarking exercise carried out last year that showed that the non-attendance rate for St Luke's Hospital was high compared to hospitals abroad," Dr Cachia said.

The rate of nonattendance is practically twice as high as St James's Hospital, in Dublin, which has a rate of 25 per cent.

The nonattendance in Brussels University Hospital is 11 per cent, and Belfast City Hospital in Northern Ireland 10 per cent. The lowest rate is at Groningen University Hospital, in the Netherlands, where only five per cent fail to turn up.

"The Customer Care Department has identified those clinics that have had the highest nonattendance rates. In a pilot project in the first three months of this year, patients with new case-appointments were reminded of their upcoming appointment and asked to confirm whether they were attending.

"For every 50 telephone calls, 10 appointments were cancelled and other patients were booked instead.

"This pilot project demonstrated a great level of satisfaction among patients and staff. As it was a resounding success, the hospital management is now examining ways of extending this to follow-up appointments," Dr Cachia said.

Patients have provided several reasons for no-shows at hospital. Logistical issues include problems with taking time off from work, childcare and lack of transport.

"The high number of patients who fail to keep their appointment and do not notify the hospital or clinic has an impact on both the hospital and the patient. Nonattendance at outpatient clinics is a drain on hospital resources for several reasons, mainly unnecessary cost on each missed appointment. This is because valuable working time is wasted by clinics and the medical records department which has to prepare medical files.

"A patient's failure to attend increases the time other patients must wait to see a hospital specialist, thereby further lengthening waiting times and waiting lists unnecessarily.

"A delayed outpatient visit may mean a delay in diagnosis for new cases, or irregular monitoring of chronic conditions, and these situations predispose to avoidable ill health," Dr Cachia said.

Joe Schembri, manager of the customer care services at St Luke's and Mater Dei hospitals, said waiting times for the different specialties vary from two to 13 months.

"I believe we can make a significant difference by the end of this year. Of course, this is not a one-man job. Unless there is total collaboration by all the stakeholders, our aim to reduce the number of those who do not attend cannot be achieved," Mr Schembri said.

Dr Cachia added: "We appeal to patients who know they will not be keeping appointments to notify the hospital in due time so that appointment slots are not wasted."