Strategies for reducing missed initial appointments in a community mental health center.

The present study attempted to reduce the missed initial appointment rate of an urban CMHC through the use of several intervention strategies. Individuals who called for an intake appointment were randomly assigned to either a control group or one of the following treatment conditions: orientation statement at the time the appointment was made, orientation statement plus phone prompt, or phone prompt only. The orientation statement only group had significantly fewer missed initial appointments than the control group (28% vs. 56%). A client reachability factor also played a role in predicting missed initial appointments.