Reducing missed appointments in general practice: evaluation of a quality improvement programme in East London.

BACKGROUND

Missed appointments are common in primary care, contributing to reduced clinical capacity. NHS England has estimated that there are 7.2 million missed general practice appointments annually, at a cost of £216 million. Reducing these numbers is important for an efficient primary care sector.

AIM

To evaluate the impact of a system-wide quality improvement (QI) programme on the rates of missed GP appointments, and to identify effective practice interventions.

DESIGN AND SETTING

Practices within a clinical commissioning group (CCG) in East London, with an ethnically diverse and socially deprived population.

METHOD

Study practices engaged in a generic QI programme, which included sharing data on appointment systems and Did Not Attend (DNA) rates. Fourteen out of 25 practices implemented DNA reduction projects, supported by practice-based coaching. Appointment data were collected from practice electronic health records. Evaluation included comparisons of DNA rates pre- and post-intervention using interrupted times series analysis.

RESULTS

In total, 25 out of 32 practices engaged with the programme. The mean DNA rate at baseline was 7% (range 2-12%); 2 years later the generic intervention DNA rates were 5.2%. This equates to a reduction of 4030 missed appointments. The most effective practice intervention was to reduce the forward booking time to 1 day. The practice that made this change reduced its mean DNA rate from 7.8% to 3.9%.

CONCLUSION

Forward booking time in days is the best predictor of practice DNA rates. Sharing appointment data produced a significant reduction in missed appointments, and behaviour change interventions with patients had a modest additional impact; in contrast, introducing structural change to the appointment system effectively reduced DNA rates. To reduce non-attendance, it appears that the appointment system needs to change, not the patient.