Mohammad, Jamil
(2009)
Non-attendance to the paediatric clinic in
Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM).
Masters thesis, Pusat Pengajian Sains Perubatan.
Abstract
Non-attendance is suspected to be one of a major problem in Paediatric Clinic. Nonattendance
to clinic could lead to severe consequences to the patients and this could give
a major burden to the health care system and medical staffs. Several studies have reported
more than 30% non-attendance. In Malaysia, there was no similar report found in
literature.
To determine the rate of non-attendance to Paediatric Clinic HUSM and to determine the
efficacy of one telephone call to give a new appointment for every contactable nonattending
patient.
Methods
This study was a cross sectional study. All non-attending patients who had an
appointment in the Pediatric Clinic of HUSM during the study period were included in
the study from 1 January 2009 to the end of February 2009. Non-attendees who are
contactable by telephone were included for the intervention part of the study. A prepared
proforma was filled up for every non-attendee. Primary outcome measures included non attendance rate and efficacy of one telephone call to give a new appointment for every
contactable non-attending patient. One thousand five hundred and sixty three patients had appointment from January 2009
until end of February 2009 in Paediatric Clinic HUSM. A total of four hundred ninety
seven patients (31.8%) were non-attendees. There was significant different in term of
clinic sessions, weather condition on the appointment day and types of clinic. From one
hundred sixty patients who were successfully contacted, ninety-five patients were
interested in new appointment. There were fifty-five patients who had a new
appointment already at the time they were contacted. Three of the contactable nonattendees
had died at home, three had been admitted, and two had moved to another state
and were followed up there. The other two patients were not interested to a new
appointment. 23.2% from the intervention group did not attend the clinic after given new
appointment. Non-attendance rate is high in Paediatric clinic HUSM and one telephone call is effective
in reducing the non-attendance rate.
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