What are the actual reasons why some people don't show up for hospital appointments?
Cancelled hospital appointments can have significant consequences for healthcare providers who are unable to carry out their work, for medical secretaries who face an extra workload to reschedule appointments, for clinics that lose efficiency, and for patients who may miss out on essential care. While there is substantial knowledge about the proportion and number of patients who fail to attend, and about which specialities face the greatest challenges, there is far less systematic knowledge about the actual reasons for non-attendance. Increasing our understanding of why patients do not attend or arrive unprepared for hospital appointments – whether due to patient-related or hospital-related factors – will provide an important foundation for developing targeted measures to help more patients attend or cancel/reschedule with sufficient notice.
Increased control over own hours
The project is an Innovation Project for Industrial Sector (IPN) funded by the Research Council of Norway. DIPS is the project owner and will use the results to develop patient-oriented technology that supports patients in gaining better control over their appointments and easier access to information about both appointments and preparations. SINTEF is responsible for conducting the research. The findings will be valuable both for technology development and for service improvement in hospital clinics.
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