acornsurgery
Missed Appointments Survey
Each month between 250 and 350 patients don’t turn up for the appointments they have made with us and don’t cancel. We have been working with our Patient Participation Group, known as the Acorn Patient Team, on this issue for some time. We have put several actions in place to try to improve the rate of missed appointments, such as providing a dedicated Appointment Cancellation Line, sending SMS Texts to patients’ mobile phones to remind them of their appointment, extended the type of appointments we offer, eg. telephone and email consultations, included information in the Practice Leaflet about cancelling appointments, and advertised the problem in the surgery and on our website and Facebook page so that patients are more aware. Many of the patients who miss their appointments then ask to book a further one – putting more and more pressure on the appointment system, leading to other patients sometimes finding it difficult to pre-book an appointment without having to wait too long.
We would like you to take part in this short survey so that we have more information about your awareness and views on the problem of missed appointments.
Put X next to the relevant answer .
1. Were you aware of the extent of the problem of missed appointments?
2. Were you aware that we have a dedicated cancellation line?
3. Appointment reminders are sent to patients mobile phone the day before their appointment. Do you think this is an appropriate service
4. If no, do you think text reminders should be sent:
5. Do you think the Practice should contact patients to find out why they didn’t attend?
6. Do you think there should be penalties for patients who repeatedly miss their appointments, for example be removed from the Practice list?
7. If yes, after how many missed appointments within 6-month period?
We would be very grateful to have any other views or ideas you may have regarding missed appointments. Please add your comments below.