Missed Appointments: Factors Contributing to High No-Show Rates in an Urban Pediatrics Primary Care Clinic

Background. Missed appointments complicate primary care services. Objective. To determine factors associated with missed pediatric appointments. Design/Methods. A convenience sample of 1537 patients who missed appointments were called and 386 (25%) families completed the 26-item survey. Those with high no-show rates were compared with the rest using X² and Fishers exact tests. Initial covariates with P <.2 were included in a multivariate logistic regression model. Results. Common reasons for missing appointments were the following: forgot (27%), transportation problems (21%), and time off of work (14%). The high no-show group had more African Americans (P =.030) and older patients (P =.003). Higher no-show rates correlated with well child visits (P =.029) and perception of excellent health (P =.022). In the logistic regression model, well child appointments (odds ratio = 2.56) and increasing age in years (odds ratio = 1.11) were associated with higher no-show rates. Conclusions. Efforts to decrease no-show rates should target older patients and well child visits.