Quantitative Analysis of the Contributing Factors Affecting Specialty Care No-Show Rates at Brooke Army Medical Center
Abstract
When Brooke Army Medical Center primary care providers refer their patients for care in one of the specialty care clinics, there is a specific and important medical reason for that follow-on care. There are several serious problems associated with patients that fail to attend their appointments (no-show). Some examples include patients' health is placed in jeopardy because specialized care is not received; liability is increased for BAMC and its providers because they are responsible for managing the patients' care; access to care is negatively affected because appointment times go un-utilized; provider productivity is not maximized and they lose relative value units for the hospital; and, unnecessary referrals are sent to the San Antonio hospital network when that workload could be captured at BAMC, saving the government unnecessarily costs. This study analyzed no-show appointments taking place in BAMC specialty care clinics during quarters 3 and 4 in fiscal year 2006. Correlations between no-shows (the dependent variable) and several other independent variables showed that a patient's age, branch of service, beneficiary category, enrollment status, day of the week, type of provider seen, and wait times all demonstrated statistical significance in contributing to no-shows. The study also determined which clinics had the highest and lowest no-show rates. BAMC's average no-show rate was 7.33%.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 30, 2007
- Accession Number
- ADA477471
Entities
People
- Brian Freidline