Am J Psychiatry 1981; 138:102-105
Copyright © 1981 by American Psychiatric Association
Who keeps the first outpatient appointment?
PJ Carpenter, GR Morrow, AC Del Gaudio and BA Ritzler
The authors studied 1,106 consecutive patients who called for an initial
outpatient appointment at a medical center department of psychiatry during
a one-year period. The 759 (68.6%) patients who kept their initial
scheduled appointment differed from the 347 (31.4%) who did not in age,
previous psychiatric treatment, source of referral, chief complaint, and
number of days they waited for an appointment. A telephone follow-up
conducted with almost 30% of those who did not keep their initial
appointment revealed that of those contacted, 26 (25%) sought other routes
for psychiatric help and 23 (22%) made a subsequent contact at the facility
studied.
