BACKGROUND Managing patients' requests for appointments is an important general practice activity. No previous research has systematically observed how patients and receptionists negotiate appointments. AIM To observe appointment making and investigate patients' and professionals' experiences of appointment negotiations. DESIGN OF STUDY A qualitative study using participant observation. S...

Observing that patients with longer appointment delays tend to have higher no-show rates, many providers place a limit on how far into the future that an appointment can be scheduled. This paper studies how the choice of appointment scheduling window affects a provider’s operational efficiency. We use a single server queue to model the registered appointments in a provider’s work schedule, and ...

Abstract Following the advances in mobile communication and information technology, smart phones have been used in a wide variety of commercial, social, entertainment, file sharing and health transactions and applications. The current procedures in healthcare environment for patient registration, appointment scheduling and payment are time consuming and somehow tiresome. Traditionally, patie...

During a severe financial crisis, it is a priority to use scientific evidence to identify factors that enable therapeutic compliance by patients. This study aimed to evaluate a possible association between the number of patients who attended a medical appointment and had medicine prescribed and the number of these same patients who purchased the prescribed medicine and whether the level of reim...

PURPOSE Between 23% and 34% of outpatient appointments are missed annually. Patients who frequently miss medical appointments have poorer health outcomes and are less likely to use preventive health care services. Missed appointments result in unnecessary costs and organizational inefficiencies. Appointment reminders may help reduce missed appointments; particular types may be more effective th...

OBJECTIVE To determine the frequency of flare-ups in single-visit endodontic treatment and the associated factors. STUDY DESIGN Observational. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Baqai Dental College Hospital, Karachi, from November 2005 to May 2006. METHODOLOGY One hundred patients were assigned for single-visit root canal treatment. Patients that defaulted after the first appointment (incomplet...