Abstract
Patients who miss endoscopy appointments cause inefficient utilization of medical resources. Because national nonattendance rates are as high as 27% and reasons for nonattendance have not been well studied, we sought to quantitate nonattendance at our tertiary care institution. We conducted a retrospective records review of the institutional database to identify patients who did not attend a scheduled endoscopy appointment between January 2000 and December 2003. Nonattendance was defined as either not showing up for an appointment or canceling it on the day it was scheduled. At our institution, patient care assistants contact such patients to document their reasons in the database. Of 36,480 patients scheduled for outpatient endoscopy, 1,490 (4.1%) did not show up because of either facility-related (44.3%; e.g., scheduling errors) or patient-related (55.7%; e.g., noncancellation, illness, or hospitalization) reasons. Our 4.1% nonattendance rate over 4 years is considerably lower than that reported by other endoscopy centers.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Prajapati DN, Saeian K, Binion DG, Staff DM, Kim JP, Massey BT, Hogan WJ (2003) Volume and yield of screening colonoscopy at a tertiary medical center after change in Medicare reimbursement. Am J Gastroenterol 98:194–199
Dobson R (2002) Broadcast of star's colonoscopy puts up screening by 20%. BMJ 324:1118
Mahajan RJ, Marshall JB (1997) Prevalence of open-access gastrointestinal endoscopy in the United States. Gastrointest Endosc 46:21–26
Minoli G, Meucci G, Bortoli A, Garripoli A, Gullotta R, Leo P, Pera A, Prada A, Rocca F, Zambelli A (2000) The ASGE guidelines for the appropriate use of colonoscopy in an open access system. Gastrointest Endosc 52:39–44
Charles RJ, Chak A, Cooper GS, Wong RC, Sivak MV Jr (1999) Use of open access in GI endoscopy at an academic medical center. Gastrointest Endosc 50:480–485
Eisen GM, Baron TH, Dominitz JA, Faigel DO, Goldstein JL, Johanson JF, Mallery JS, Raddawi HM, Vargo JJ, Waring JP, Fanelli RD, Wheeler-Harbaugh J (2002) Open access endoscopy. Gastrointest Endosc 56:793–795
Marshall JB (1998) Open access endoscopy in Britain: a service in evolution [comment]. Gastrointest Endosc 48:656–658
Axon A (1998) Open access endoscopy in Britain: a service in evolution. Gastrointest Endosc 48:653–656
Adams LA, Pawlik J, Forbes GM (2004) Nonattendance at outpatient endoscopy. Endoscopy 36:402–404
Sanchez-del Rio A, Quintero E, Alarcon O (2004) Appropriateness of indications for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy in open-access endoscopy units [in Spanish]. Gastroenterol Hepatol 27:119–124
Raju G, Boening SK, Mielsch EJ, Jafri SF, Bhutani MS, Szauter K, Shabot JM, Synder N III, Nath SK, Faruqi S, Pasricha PJ (2003) Patient compliance is key to the success of an open-access colonoscopy program [abstract]. Gastrointest Endosc 57:AB112
Baron TH, Kimery BD, Sorbi D, Gorkis LC, Leighton JA, Fleischer DE (2004) Strategies to address increased demand for colonoscopy: guidelines in an open endoscopy practice. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 2:178–182
Minoli G, Prada A, Gambetta G, Formenti A, Schalling R, Lai L, Pera A (1995) The ASGE guidelines for the appropriate use of upper gastrointestinal endoscopy in an open access system. Gastrointest Endosc 42:387–389
Mahajan RJ, Barthel JS, Marshall JB (1996) Appropriateness of referrals for open-access endoscopy: how do physicians in different medical specialties do? Arch Intern Med 156:2065–2069
Charles RJ, Cooper GS, Wong RC, Sivak MV Jr, Chak A (2003) Effectiveness of open-access endoscopy in routine primary-care practice. Gastrointest Endosc 57:183–186
American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (2000) Appropriate use of gastrointestinal endoscopy. Gastrointest Endosc 52:831–837
Delaney BC, Wilson S, Roalfe A, Roberts L, Redman V, Wearn A, Briggs A, Hobbs FDR (2000) Cost effectiveness of initial endoscopy for dyspepsia in patients over age 50 years: a randomised controlled trial in primary care. Lancet 356:1965–1969
Morini S, Hassan C, Meucci G, Toldi A, Zullo A, Minoli G (2001) Diagnostic yield of open access colonoscopy according to appropriateness. Gastrointest Endosc 54:175–179
Scott M, Allen S, Bamford A, Walshe M, Clark CI (2002) Influence of a nurse practitioner on non-attendance rate for barium enema. J R Soc Med 95:448–449
Ritchie PD, Jenkins M, Cameron PA (2000) A telephone call reminder to improve outpatient attendance in patients referred from the emergency department: a randomised controlled trial. Aust N Z J Med 30:585–592
Lloyd M, Bradford C, Webb S (1993) Non-attendance at outpatient clinics: is it related to the referral process? Fam Pract 10:111–117
Hardy KJ, O’Brien SV, Furlong NJ (2001) Information given to patients before appointments and its effect on non-attendance rate. BMJ 323:1298–1300
Acknowledgements
Portions of this manuscript have been published in abstract form by the American College of Gastroenterology, 2004. Material was presented in part as a poster at the 69th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology, Orlando, Florida, October 29–November 3, 2004.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gurudu, S.R., Fry, L.C., Fleischer, D.E. et al. Factors Contributing to Patient Nonattendance at Open-access Endoscopy. Dig Dis Sci 51, 1942–1945 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10620-006-9215-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10620-006-9215-0