Abstract
To understand the effect that termination of an established physician-patient relationship has on patient attendance patterns in a medical clinic, appointment scheduling and patient attendance were measured for 210 patients before and after 11 senior resident physicians left the clinic. There was no significant change in appointment scheduling, although the number of unscheduled or “drop-in” visits increased (p=0.02). Likewise, patient attendance patterns did not differ between study periods. Overall the termination of an established relationship between an internist and a patient in this hospital-based general medicine clinic had no effect on appointment scheduling and patient attendance.
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Received from Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina.
Supported by an American College of Physicians Teaching and Research Scholarship.
Supported in part by a clinical epidemiological grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Data management was assisted using the CLINFO Data Analysis System of Duke University (RR-30 G.C.R.C.), supported by the Division of Research Resources of the NIH.
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Brown, J.T., Flkerson, C.C. & Delong, E.R. The resident leaves the clinic. J Gen Intern Med 1, 98–100 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02599811
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02599811