Dataset Information

Investigating the reasons for missing an outpatient appointment in Royal Hospital, Sultanate of Oman: Perspectives of patients and medical staff in a survey.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Missed appointments are a major health issue in the healthcare systems globally. They directly impact on the use of hospital resources, patient's health, and can lead to patient's dissatisfaction. This study was conducted to assess the reasons for missing a hospital appointment.

Methods

A survey was conducted with a randomly selected sample of patients who missed their outpatient appointment in Royal hospital, Sultanate of Oman, from March to April 2021 in six clinics. Patients were interviewed via telephone to answer a structured survey. In addition, a self-administered survey was distributed to medical staff to explore their perspectives.

Results

Two hundred eighty patients and 52 medical staff participated in the study. Frequent patient-reported reasons for missed appointment were transportation difficulties (11.4%), no longer needing (7.5%), or forgetting the appointment (6.8%); staff-reported reasons were transportation (23.8%), no SMS received (16.9%), and forgetting the appointment (15.4%). Frequencies of reasons varied substantially between clinics. Family obligations were the main theme in obstetrics (odds ratio [OR] 9.48; 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.66-33.78) and in diabetes clinic (OR 10.55; 95% CI 2.68-38.58), where transportation issue was the main theme in Oncology clinic (OR 4.83; 95% CI 1.11-21.02). The recommendations for improvement were mainly around improving the reminder system, the use of telephone reminders, and developing a flexible appointment scheduling system.

Conclusion

Knowing the reasons for missed appointment from patients and health professionals can help to develop effective interventions. The heterogeneity between clinics in reasons for missed appointment indicates for interventions tailored to clinic and frequent reasons.

SUBMITTER: Alawadhi A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8749310 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Similar Datasets

Project description:ObjectivesMissed hospital appointments pose a major challenge for healthcare systems. There is a lack of information about drivers of missed hospital appointments in non-Western countries and extent of variability between different types of clinics. The aim was to evaluate the rate and predictors of missed hospital appointments and variability in drivers between multiple outpatient clinics.SettingOutpatient clinics in the Royal hospital (tertiary referral hospital in Oman) between 2014 and 2018.ParticipantsAll patients with a scheduled outpatient clinic appointment (N=7 69 118).Study designRetrospective cross-sectional analysis.Primary and secondary outcome measuresA missed appointment was defined as a patient who did not show up for the scheduled hospital appointment without notifying or asking for the appointment to be cancelled or rescheduled. The outcomes were the rate and predictors of missed hospital appointments overall and variations by clinic. Conditional logistic regression compared patients who attended and those who missed their appointment.ResultsThe overall rate of missed hospital appointments was 22.3%, which varied between clinics (14.0% for Oncology and 30.3% for Urology). Important predictors were age, sex, service costs, patient's residence distance from hospital, waiting time and appointment day and season. Substantive variability between clinics in ORs for a missed appointment was present for predictors such as service costs and waiting time. Patients aged 81-90 in the Diabetes and Endocrine clinic had an adjusted OR of 0.53 for missed appointments (95% CI 0.37 to 0.74) while those in Obstetrics and Gynaecology had OR of 1.70 (95% CI 1.11 to 2.59). Adjusted ORs for longer waiting times (>120 days) were 2.22 (95% CI 2.10 to 2.34) in Urology but 1.26 (95% CI 1.18 to 1.36) in Oncology.ConclusionPredictors of a missed appointment varied between clinics in their effects. Interventions to reduce the rate of missed appointments should consider these factors and be tailored to clinic.

Project description:Brucellosis, one of the most common zoonotic diseases and has significant public health and economic importance worldwide. Few studies and reports have been performed to estimate the true prevalence of animal brucellosis in the Sultanate of Oman; however, no incidence of the disease was previously reported in Al Jabal Al Akhdar. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of brucellosis in goats in eight villages in Al Jebal Al Akhdar, Sultanate of Oman, namely: Al Aqaieb, Al Helailat, Al Ghilayil, Hail Al Hedap, Da'an Al Hamra, Shnoot, Al Qasha'e and Al Sarah, Al Jabal Al Akhdar in the Sultanate of Oman. In this study we used different diagnostic serological tests, namely, RBT, I-ELISA and CFT to study the prevalence of Brucella infection in goats in Al Jabal Al Akhdar. Statistical analysis using Kappa statistics was used to compare the performance of the serological tests. Biochemical tests and species-specific Multiplex PCR were used to identify the brucella species involved in the infection. A structured questionnaire and Chi-square (x2 ) statistical analysis was used to identify related brucellosis risk factors. This study is the first to reveal brucellosis infection in goats in eight villages in Al Jebal Al Akhdar, Sultanate of Oman, namely: Al Aqaieb, Al Helailat, Al Ghilayil, Hail Al Hedap, Da'an Al Hamra, Shnoot, Al Qasha'e and Al Sarah, with an overall seroprevalence of 11.1%. The study also compared the performance of three different serological tests, namely, RBT, I-ELISA and CFT. Statistical analysis using Kappa statistics showed that the degree of agreement was best seen between RBT and CFT (96%), followed by RBT, I- ELISA (91.4%) and CFT and I- ELISA (89.2%). Biochemical tests and species-specific Multiplex PCR showed the typical profile for B. melitensis. A structured questionnaire and Chi-square (x2 ) statistical analysis indicated that the presence of abortion is the major risk factor for the prevalence of brucellosis, whereas age and sex were not significant factors in the tested animals. Besides, poor knowledge about brucellosis, consumption of unpasteurized milk or milk products, free trade of animals and the introduction of new animal breeds to herds were all contributing risk factors to the prevalence of brucellosis. The prevalence of human brucellosis obtained verbally from pastoralists gave an insight that brucellosis could pose a public health hazard, especially in those high-risk groups, mainly the pastoralists in the study area. Because of their constant and increasing interaction with their animals, pastoralists could be at a high risk of occupational infection.

Project description:BackgroundLittle research has been done on patient call light use and staff response time, which were found to be associated with inpatient falls and satisfaction. Nurses' perspectives may moderate or mediate the aforementioned relationships. This exploratory study intended to understand staff's perspectives about call lights, staff responsiveness, and the reasons for and the nature of call light use. It also explored differences among hospitals and identified significant predictors of the nature of call light use.MethodsThis cross-sectional, multihospital survey study was conducted from September 2008 to January 2009 in four hospitals located in the Midwestern region of the United States. A brief survey was used. All 2309 licensed and unlicensed nursing staff members who provide direct patient care in 27 adult care units were invited to participate. A total of 808 completed surveys were retrieved for an overall response rate of 35%. The SPSS 16.0 Window version was used. Descriptive and binary logistic regression analyses were conducted.ResultsThe primary reasons for patient-initiated calls were for toileting assistance, pain medication, and intravenous problems. Toileting assistance was the leading reason. Each staff responded to 6 to 7 calls per hour and a call was answered within 4 minutes (estimated). 49% of staff perceived that patient-initiated calls mattered to patient safety. 77% agreed that that these calls were meaningful. 52% thought that these calls required the attention of nursing staff. 53% thought that answering calls prevented them from doing the critical aspects of their role. Staff's perceptions about the nature of calls varied across hospitals. Junior staff tended to overlook the importance of answering calls. A nurse participant tended to perceive calls as more likely requiring nursing staff's attention than a nurse aide participant.ConclusionsIf answering calls was a high priority among nursing tasks, staff would perceive calls as being important, requiring nursing staff's attention, and being meaningful. Therefore, answering calls should not be perceived as preventing staff from doing the critical aspects of their role. Additional efforts are necessary to reach the ideal or even a reasonable level of patient safety-first practice in current hospital environments.