Disclosures: Tonatiuh Avila Garcia, MD: No financial relationships or conflicts of interest

Objective: To evaluate absenteeism causes in patients who did not attend their first-time appointment in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Hospital Civil de Guadalajara Fray Antonio Alcalde during last semester of 2019.

Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting : Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at a public tertiary hospital. Participants : We included one hundred twelve outpatient subjects, male and female, all ages, who did not attend their first-time medical appointment in our department from June to December 2019; the absence of a telephone number in the clinical record and the non-response to the telephone call were exclusion criteria.

Interventions: Not applicable.

Main Outcome Measures: Age, absenteeism cause, diagnosis and address of the patients were evaluated by a telephonic survey. We calculated frequencies and percentages of all variables.

Results: The most frequent cause of absenteeism was forgetting the appointment (24.1%, mean age 41.52±18.8 years) followed by lack of financial resources to attend the medical consultation (18.8%); musculoskeletal diseases were the most prevalent diagnosis (52.7%); 70.5% of the participants had their address in the municipality of Guadalajara. Conclusions: Absenteeism in first-time appointment with physiatrist is a serious problem in the Department where we conducted this investigation. This quality improvement research suggests that it is necessary to implement a reminder system that includes young patients and those with an address close to our institution.

Level of Evidence: Level III

« Back to AAPM&R Annual Assembly 2020

PM&R Meeting Abstracts - https://pmrjabstracts.org/abstract/why-patients-do-not-attend-to-their-first-time-appointment-in-the-physical-medicine-and-rehabilitation-department-at-a-third-level-public-hospital/