ArticleCanadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien2020
Patients' missed appointments in academic family practices in Quebec.
Article in Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 6 citations in OpenAlex.
- [Patient-reported reasons for missed otolaryngology outpatient appointments].Anales del sistema sanitario de Navarra · 2026Observational
- Global Predictors of Appointment Non-Adherence in Primary Care Settings: A Systematic Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Patient "No-Show" Prior to Elective Primary Total Hip Arthroplasty Increases Risk of Postoperative Anemia.Arthroplasty today · 2025Article
- Article
- Understanding the causes of missingness in primary care: a realist review.BMC medicine · 2024Review
- Factors and Reasons Associated With Appointment Non-attendance in Hospitals: A Narrative Review.Cureus · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo determine the prevalence of no-show patients in 4 family medicine teaching units (FMTUs) and to investigate the reasons given by patients for past missed appointments in order to identify factors that could be acted on to improve access to care.
designRetrospective data collection through electronic medical records and a self-administered survey.
settingFour FMTUs at the University of Montreal in Quebec.
participantsPatients older than 18 years of age (or younger patients' guardians) who were able to read French and had visited the clinic at least once. MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES: No-show prevalence among patients scheduled to see different types of health care professionals, and patients' reasons for past missed appointments and for not notifying the clinic before missing an appointment.
resultsThe overall prevalence of no-show patients was 7.8% (2700 missed appointments of 34 619 scheduled appointments), ranging from 6.3% to 9.0% among the 4 FMTUs. The survey participation rate was 91.0% (1757 completed surveys of 1930 distributed surveys). A total of 19.1% of respondents acknowledged previous no-show behaviour. Resolved issues (22.9%) and work obligations (19.4%) were the most frequent personal reasons for missing an appointment, whereas inconvenient timing of the appointment (17.0%), delay before the appointment (14.6%), and lack of confirmation (13.7%) were the most frequent organizational reasons. The most frequent reason for not notifying the clinic of the absence was forgetting to call (55.2%).
conclusionThe no-show phenomenon, although not very prevalent in our clinics, is present and can potentially affect access to care. Reasons for missing an appointment without notifying the clinic are varied and point toward different potential solutions to reduce no-shows. Educating patients about the importance of informing the clinic when they cannot come, offering a wider range of appointment dates and times, systematically confirming appointments, improving telephone service, and offering different methods to communicate with the clinic could all be solutions to improve access to care.
Indexed as
Identifiers
32404457PMC7219803W3025661602What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.