TYPE OF DOCUMENT – POLICY
TITLE - DID NOT ATTEND - appointments
Procedure Written by / Combined – partners/managerReview / biennial
Responsibility for review / Manager or partners
Review dates / Reviewed by
Written Jan 2005
June 08
November 10
September 2012
January 2013 / Practice Manager – Letters 1, 2 3 slight amendments
Reviewed C Hicking, Practice Manager - Letters 1, 2 3, & Leaflet posted as appendices 1,2,3,4
Reviewed C Hicking, Practice Manager
Partnership name changed.
DNA letters replaced due to changes made.
Reviewed by C Hicking Practice Manager
Partnership name changed – Dr Bandaru added
WHITE HOUSE FARM MEDICAL CENTRE
POLICY
‘DID NOT ATTEND’ APPOINTMENTS
AIM:
To raise the awareness and explain how we deal with the problem caused by patients, who do not attend routine booked appointments and give no reasonable explanation.
PROCESS:
The practice monitors the number of missed appointments daily, weekly and monthly. We are keen to reduce the number of routine appointments that are wasted weekly. An increase in the number of appointments missed will cause
- Frustration for both staff and patients.
- Cause an increase in the waiting time for appointments
- A waste of resources (doctors/nurses time)
The computer appointment system will automatically log into a patient’s record if they do not attend by entering information ‘Non-Attender’. We will monitor this problem and apply the following process:-
Letter 1 If a patient fails to attend routine booked appointment/s without informing us we will write to the patient asking if there are any specific problem/s that may have prevented them from contacting us to cancel the booked appointment. We will send a letter, leaflet(Appendix 4) and copy of the policy. (Appendix 1)
Letter 2 If a patient fails further appointment/s, we will usually send a second reminder.(Appendix 2)
Letter 3 Patients who do not attend routine appointments after receiving reminders will receive a letter informing them that they will be removed from the practice list and how they should seek an alternative GP practice. At the same time a letter will go to the Health Authority requesting removal from the practice list, (Appendix 3)
We believe this policy is necessary for the benefit of the majority of our patients who do attend appointments or give us notice to cancel.
Drs, Bennekers, Dahanayake & Bandaru
PATIENT INFORMATION
MISSED APPOINTMENTS
We monitor the number of appointments that are missed each day, each week and each month. We also record the information in the computer records of those patients who do not attend. (this information is generated by the computer appointment system automatically).
Why do patients DNA? We don’t know.
We know that when appointments are not available patients become angry and frustrated with the staff and doctors. The number of appointments wasted obviously contributes to this problem.
Some patients may fail to attend an appointment, perhaps they were taken into hospital, and, obviously at that time their priority was not to ring and cancel a doctor’s appointment. We would consider this fair and a reasonable explanation for DNA.
We do not consider some explanations from patients as good reasons for example :-
- Sorry went shopping and forgot!
- I felt better and didn’t need the appointment!
- Got times wrong, thought it was previous day!
We have some patients who DNA quite regularly, as though we don’t matter, and other patients don’t matter – we think this is totally unacceptable.
We cannot charge patients for non-attendance but we can remove patients who persistently DNA from our practice list.
______
In an attempt to try and resolve this problem, the practice have developed a DNA Policy – a copy is attached to this leaflet.
Appendix 1 DNA letter 1
WHITE HOUSE FARM MEDICAL CENTRE
Tel No: 01302 831437 Fax No: 01302 300623
Textphone available for Deaf or Hard of Hearing Patients.
Dr J E C Bennekers Church Street
Dr S M B Dahanayake Armthorpe
Dr N P Bandaru Doncaster
Dr S Bhaskar DN3 3AH
Date
TitleForenameSurname
Patient address
Dear Title/Initials/Surname
MISSED APPOINTMENT/S
We have noticed from your records that you failed to attend ___ consecutive appointments at the surgery.
Date:
Date:
Whilst we appreciate this may have been an oversight on your part, we would like to remind you that it is important to cancel unwanted appointments, so that we have the opportunity to offer the appointment to another patient.
The affect of missed appointments when patients fail to contact the surgery in advance to cancel/change appointments are:
An increase in the waiting time for appointments
A potential risk to the health of a patient
Frustration for both patients and staff
A waste of resources.
The Practice has a Policy which sets out our aims and the process we use to try to reduce the problem; I enclose a copy for your information.
Yours sincerely
Doctor’s of White house Farm Medical Centre
Enc’s 1. Patient Information – Missed Appointments
2 ‘Did Not Attend’ Policy
APPENDIX 2 DNA Letter 2
WHITE HOUSE FARM MEDICAL CENTRE
Tel No: 01302 831437 Fax No: 01302 300623
Textphone available for Deaf or Hard of Hearing Patients.
Dr J E C Bennekers Church Street
Dr S M B Dahanayake Armthorpe
Dr N P Bandaru Doncaster
Dr S Bhaskar DN3 3AH
Date
TitleForenameSurname
Patient address
Dear Title/Initials/Surname
MISSED APPOINTMENT/S
Further to our previous letter dated we note from your medical record that you failed to attend another appointment.
We explained in the previous letter and the information sent to you, that it is important for patients to cancel unwanted appointments. We believe that patients who do not attend appointments are effectively denying the opportunity for another patient to see the doctor or nurse. We trust you agree that this is an unacceptable situation.
As this is your second reminder letter, we would stress to you the importance of contacting the surgery if you cannot attend an appointment so that another patient may have use of that appointment. I would urge you to read the Did Not Attend Policy which we sent to you with our previous letter. The Policy indicates that we will send three letters to a patient who has missed appointments and who has not contacted the practice to cancel, the third letter is usually to inform the patient that we will be contacting the South Riding Health Services Support team to seek removal from our patient list.
We would appreciate your co-operation and support to improve access for all our patients.
Yours sincerely
Doctor’s of White house Farm Medical Centre
APPENDIX 3 – DNA Letter 3
WHITE HOUSE FARM MEDICAL CENTRE
Tel No: 01302 831437 Fax No: 01302 300623
Textphone available for Deaf or Hard of Hearing Patients.
Dr J E C Bennekers Church Street
Dr S M B Dahanayake Armthorpe
Dr N P Bandaru Doncaster
Dr S Bhaskar DN3 3AH
Date
TitleForenameSurname
Patient address
Dear Title/Initials/Surname
MISSED APPOINTMENT/S
We have sent 2 previous letters dated and but unfortunately, we note you have failed to attend another appointment. As we have received no explanation for your non attendance we are saddened to make the decision to ask the South Yorkshire Primary Support team to remove your name from our practice list.
We will be writing to the SYPS team today, and we advise you to register with another General Practitioner in your area. If you need help please contact the Patient Advice & Liaison Service on 01302 768550 or the Registration Manager at SYPS on telephone number 01302 566617.
Please note, the SYPS team will write to you, to tell you when your removal from our list will be effective, and until that date (or until you register with another GP) we remain responsible for your health care.
Yours sincerely
Doctor’s of White house Farm Medical Centre