Patient punctuality and clinic performance: observations from an academic-based private practice pain centre: a prospective quality improvement study

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to examine the effects of an intervention to alter patient unpunctuality. The major hypothesis was that the intervention will change the distribution of patient unpunctuality by decreasing patient tardiness and increasing patient earliness. DESIGN Prospective Quality Improvement. SETTING Specialty Pain Clinic in suburban Baltimore, Maryland, USA. PARTICIPANTS The patient population ranged in age from 18 to 93 years. All patients presenting to the clinic during the study period were included in the study. The average monthly volume was 86.2 (SD=13) patients. A total of 1500 patient visits were included in this study. INTERVENTIONS We tracked appointment times and patient arrival times at an ambulatory pain clinic. An intervention was made in which patients were informed that tardy patients would not be seen and would be rescheduled. This policy was enforced over a 12-month period. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES The distribution of patient unpunctuality was developed preintervention and at 12 months after implementation. Distribution parameters were used as inputs to a discrete event simulation to determine effects of the change in patient unpunctuality on clinic delay. RESULTS Data regarding patient unpunctuality were gathered by direct observation before and after implementation of the intervention. The mean unpunctuality changed from -20.5 min (110 observations, SD=1.7) preintervention to -23.2 (169, 1.2) at 1 month after the intervention, -23.8 min (69, 1.8) at 6 months and -25.0 min (71, 1.2) after 1 year. The unpunctuality 12 months after initiation of the intervention was significantly different from that prior to the intervention (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS Physicians and staff are able to alter patient arrival patterns to reduce patient unpunctuality. Reducing tardiness improves some measures of clinic performance, but may not always improve waiting times. Accommodating early arriving patients does serve to improve clinic performance.