Fundamental to optimal diabetes management is good patient self-care and regular follow-up with health professionals. Missed appointment may disrupt the continuity of diabetes care, thereby interfering with regular preventive screening and timely intervention.1 It may also affect care for other patients due to interference with scheduling, poor use of resources and negative impact on doctor-pat...

OBJECTIVES To investigate missed appointments in a South African tertiary hospital. STUDY DESIGN Prospective, descriptive series with controls. SETTING The ENT/Oncology clinic at Tygerberg Academic Hospital, South Africa. SUBJECT 305 patients with a head and neck malignancy who had follow-up appointments over 4 consecutive months between June and September 2006. A control group of 31 pati...

BACKGROUND Non-compliance is a common cause of failed medical action, contributing to absence of regular check-ups. Our group has already published studies that analyse the level of non-compliance with appointments amongst patients attending our Allergology clinic, and we have made proposals for improvement. OBJECTIVE This article evaluates the results obtained three years after setting up an...

BACKGROUND In the "Centre National Hospitalier de Pneumo-Phtisiologie" of Cotonou, Benin, little is known about the characteristics of patients who have not attended their scheduled appointment, the results of tracing and the possible benefits on improving treatment outcomes. This study aimed to determine the contribution of tracing activities for those who missed scheduled appointments towards...

Background. Missed doses and appointments are predictors of incomplete adherence among patients on ART. The AIDSRelief model emphasizes treatment preparation and continuous treatment support for ART patients including community followup. Methods. In August 2008, a survey was conducted among patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART) (interquartile range for duration of ART = 29-46 months, median ...

BACKGROUND Missed appointments serve as a key indicator for adherence to therapy and as such, identifying patient reasons for this inconsistency could assist in developing programmes to improve health outcomes. In this article, we explore the reasons for missed appointments linked to a centralised dispensing system in South Africa. This system dispenses pre-packed, patient-specific medication p...

This study compared the ability of four measures of patient retention in HIV expert care to predict clinical outcomes. This retrospective study examined Veterans Health Administration (VHA) beneficiaries with HIV (ICD-9-CM codes 042 or V08) receiving expert care (defined as HIV-1 RNA viral load and CD4 cell count tests occurring within one week of each other) at VHA facilities from October 1, 2...

Background: Non-compliance is a common cause of failed medical action, contributing to absence of regular check-ups. Our group has already published studies that analyse the level of non-compliance with appointments amongst patients attending our Allergology clinic, and we have made proposals for improvement. Objective: This article evaluates the results obtained three years after setting up an...

Importance Transportation barriers contribute to missed primary care appointments for patients with Medicaid. Rideshare services have been proposed as alternatives to nonemergency medical transportation programs because of convenience and lower costs. Objective To evaluate the association between rideshare-based medical transportation and missed primary care appointments among Medicaid patien...

INTRODUCTION Proper management of chronic diseases is important for prevention of disease complications and yet some patients miss appointments for medical review thereby missing the opportunity for proper monitoring of their disease conditions. There is limited information on missed appointments among chronic disease patients in resource limited settings. This study aimed to determine the prev...