Abstract：Objective To analyze the reasons why patients fail to keep appointments with doctors in order to take related countermeasures to prevent the waste of medical resources and continue to improve the management and service level of out-patients.Methods Information on patients who failed to keep an appointment with the doctor in the fourth quarter of 2016 was retrieved. Data on personal basic information, ways of making an appointment, categories of selected doctors, the number of days before the appointment was statistically analyzed using software SPSS23.0 and chi-squared test. The reasons patients failed to keep an appointment in a week in 2017 were investigated via a telephone of the hospital.Results There were a total of 15,207 appointments with doctors and 2,654 cases of breaking an appointment in the fourth quarter of 2016. The rate of breaking an appointment was 17.45%, and was significantly different between different ways of making an appointment, categories of selected doctors and the numbers of days until the appointment. 283 people were investigated on the telephone and 251 replied. People failed to keep an appointment with the doctor for different reasons. Conclusions Hospitals and patients should make joint effort to maintain the efficiency of appointments. A hospital should formulate customized service measures, adjust the allocation of resources properly and improve the service quality of appointments.
2018, Vol. 29 
