Patients Who Miss Initial Appointments in Community Psychiatry? a Spanish Community Analysis

1999

Objectives : To identify factors that predict which patients, when referred by their GP, make a first appointment at a Mental Health Centre and then fail to attend. Method: Sequential observational study in which data was collected for one year on all the people (1311) with an arranged date for an initial appointment at an urban Community Mental Health Centre. Results: Approximately 25% of patients who request an initial appointment fail to attend. The variables that predict non-attendance are: the lack of a telephone number for contact, the time lapse before the appointment, and when drug-addiction is the reason for requesting the appointment. One variable that results in a specific kind o…