By Sarah Stone

No clear solution for ‘no-show’ patients

Apr 6, 2015 | 6:53 AM

Between January and February, 3,660 minutes of doctors and nurses’ time were wasted.

This is according to the Prince Albert Parkland Health Region (PAPHR), which examined health care appointments for which the patient didn’t show up.

In a graph published in the board notes, it showed the no-show rates for several rural clinics.  Leoville patients were the worst offenders with 12 per cent of patients not appearing for their scheduled appointments. Birch Hills and Hafford patients were the most reliable, with a three per cent no show rate. The average amount of no shows hovers at six per cent.

Lynnda Berg, vice-president of primary care, said this can affect the flow of the clinics.

“It’s basically the fact that the clinician is ready to work and receive a patient who doesn’t show up,” she said, adding there is other work the clinician can do in these cases. “But it also interferes with the fact that, you know, that person didn’t show up so there was somebody else who maybe couldn’t get in who wanted to.”

Learn the signs

How often should you change your brakes?

2h ago

Missing pet

'She means the world to our family': Woman seeks help in finding missing pet parrot

23h ago

BE CAREFUL ON THE ROADS

Semi flips outside P.A.; one of dozens of incidents on Sask. roads due to winter weather

23h ago

Places like Leoville and Spiritwood often run high, she said. However, there’s not much rhyme or reason as to why some clinics have higher rates than others. 

“It doesn’t seem to change those ones have been higher.  There’s so many reasons why people don’t show, I mean, I think some of it is transportation … we try to tell people, you know, ‘if you can’t come make sure that you phone and cancel’ because we do keep a short list of people who can come in,” she said.

There is not much of a difference on how each clinic is run that would cause the almost 10 per cent difference in no shows, she said.  However, one theory could be that Leoville doesn’t have as much secretarial support, Berg added.

“The reminding may not be as much there [Leoville] because that’s only a part-time service, so we don’t have clerical staff that would phone every day, so that might be a factor there,” she said.

Several measures have been tried to ensure patients show up to their appointments, Berg said, but there has been no dramatic shift in the rates.

“We can phone somebody and they say ‘yes I’ll be there’ and the next day they don’t show up.  They either can’t get a ride or something happens.  The odd time you get illness or you get storms and that sort of thing happens as well,” she said.

At one site, they tried not giving appointments to patients who are repeat offenders, but Berg said that didn’t go over very well.

In addition, Berg said they had explored texting reminders to patients, but found this solution costly and timely.

“Sometimes we find that people … are often changing their number … so often we don’t have the correct number.  I’ve seen clerical people spend ages trying to find a number to do a reminder, so that is a factor too is people are little bit more transient with phones these days.”

Looking ahead, she’s not sure how to address the problem.

“I don’t have a magic answer on no shows.”

The PAPHR hopes to reach a five per cent no show rate on average.

sstone@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahstone84