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Weekday Affects Attendance Rate for Medical Appointments: Large-Scale Data Analysis and Implications

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  • David A Ellis
  • Rob Jenkins

Abstract

The financial cost of missed appointments is so great that even a small percentage reduction in Did Not Attend (DNA) rate could save significant sums of money. Previous studies have identified many factors that predict DNA rate, including patient age, gender, and transport options. However, it is not obvious how healthcare providers can use this information to improve attendance, as such factors are not under their control. One factor that is under administrative control is appointment scheduling. Here we asked whether DNA rate could be reduced by altering scheduling policy. In Study 1, we examined attendance records for 4,538,294 outpatient hospital appointments across Scotland between January 1st 2008 and December 31st 2010. DNA rate was highest for Mondays (11%), lowest for Fridays (9.7%), and decreased monotonically over the week (Monday-Friday comparison [χ2(1, N = 1,585,545) = 722.33, p

Suggested Citation

  • David A Ellis & Rob Jenkins, 2012. "Weekday Affects Attendance Rate for Medical Appointments: Large-Scale Data Analysis and Implications," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(12), pages 1-4, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0051365
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0051365
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    Cited by:

    1. David A Ellis & Richard Wiseman & Rob Jenkins, 2015. "Mental Representations of Weekdays," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(8), pages 1-17, August.
    2. Jet G Sanders & Rob Jenkins, 2016. "Weekly Fluctuations in Risk Tolerance and Voting Behaviour," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(7), pages 1-12, July.
    3. Henry Lenzi & Ângela Jornada Ben & Airton Tetelbom Stein, 2019. "Development and validation of a patient no-show predictive model at a primary care setting in Southern Brazil," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(4), pages 1-14, April.

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