Title : A quality improvement project to reduce the no-show rates in pain care clinics (PCC) at Ontario, Canada
Abstract:
Background:
No show, in outpatient clinics, is de-fined as patients who fail to attend their scheduled clinic appointments. It is one of the targets for improving quality of care. It leads to longer waiting times for patients to be seen in outpatient clinics. It’s been shown that frequent no-shows can affect clinic productivity and clinical outcomes. We designed and implemented a quality improvement project aimed to reduce no-show rate in our clinic from 24% to 15% in a year.
Methods:
This quality improvement project aimed to reduce the 'no show' rate in a Pain Care Clinic at Ontario, Canada. A project team was assembled, and senior management was involved. Baseline and ongoing measures were collected and charted. Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) method. including a root cause analysis and process map and identified four areas to improve: 1) appointment reminder system, 2) update patient contact, 3) appointment flexibility, and 4) no-show policy adherence. A new no-show policy was implemented.
Results:
Following the PDSA interventions, the post intervention no-show rate dropped to 15% and continued the project for one more year for further improvement to 12%.
Audience Take Away Notes:
- Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) methods effectively reduce the no-show rates.
- We identified four areas to improve: 1) appointment re-minder system, 2) update patient contact, 3) appoint-ment flexibility, and 4) no-show policy adherence.
- These factors may be replicated in any outpatient setting, but each clinic is unique and understanding the factors driving no-show behavior is important to develop the right set of suggestions and solutions.
