Waller J, Hodgkin P
Centre for Innovation in Primary Care, Sheffield, UK.
Fam Pract. 2000 Jun;17(3):252-3. doi: 10.1093/fampra/17.3.252.
The study of patients in primary care settings who default on their appointment has been based largely on short-term surveys in individual health centres.
As part of a wider research project into the potential of practice computer appointment systems as a data source, we wanted to explore the aggregate pattern of default.
Comprehensive computer appointment data from nine general practices for 1 or 2 years were analysed to explore the pattern of defaulted appointments for doctors and practice nurses.
Around 6.5% of all appointments ended in a default. Default rates were found to be highest amongst young adults and, at a practice level, to be highly correlated with deprivation level. About two-thirds of those who defaulted only did it once during the year. A small core of patients defaulted frequently, but only a quarter of these repeated their behaviour in the following year.
The discussion suggests that strategies based on educating or punishing defaulters in order to change their behaviour may be of limited effectiveness.
对初级保健机构中爽约患者的研究主要基于个别健康中心的短期调查。
作为一项关于实践计算机预约系统作为数据源潜力的更广泛研究项目的一部分，我们希望探索爽约的总体模式。
分析了来自九个全科诊所1年或2年的全面计算机预约数据，以探究医生和执业护士的爽约预约模式。
所有预约中约6.5%以爽约告终。发现年轻人的爽约率最高，并且在诊所层面，与贫困程度高度相关。约三分之二爽约者在一年中仅爽约一次。一小部分核心患者经常爽约，但其中只有四分之一在次年重复其行为。
讨论表明，基于教育或惩罚爽约者以改变其行为的策略可能效果有限。
