Family Webicine: No Shows - Failure to Make Your Appointments

No-Shows are a double-edged sword in the medical world. An appointment was made and a slot was designated for your arrival. Other people who requested that same appointment time were turned down. You did not call to cancel your appointment; and you did not show up. The day after Easter I had three No Shows in a row; two for physical examinations. The double-edged part is that I also had time to write a Blog about it.

Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone forgets appointments. Personally, I have developed this short-term memory issue over the last few years. (See "Rinse, Lather, and Repeat"). Sometimes, there are unusual circumstances that result in missed appointments, but most of the time, we simply forget. We are human.

We do have frequent-flyer No Shows in our practice. Each incident earns a red "No Show" stamp on their chart. Now that we are going to Electronic Medical Records, those No Shows are not as evident as before. We forgive the first one; send a nice letter when it happens a second time, a less-nice letter for the third time, and finally, after repeated No Shows, a letter of dismissal from our practice. This last letter is rarely sent. It is interesting that the same woman that repeatedly misses a doctor's appointment will never miss a hair appointment.

Because I work in pediatrics, I can't really punish children because their parent may be an airhead. Parents and children do get over-extended and over-stressed, so I tend to cut them a lot of breaks. Because I have missed a dental appointment this year and a several meetings, I tend to be very forgiving.

I am one of the few medical providers in our practice that will see patients that are late (less of an infraction than not showing up at all) and see patients that are Walk-ins. Diseases rarely show up on any type of schedule that you can anticipate, so if a sick child is brought in, I see them, no matter how busy I am.

Looks like I just had two more No Shows. This is a new record; five out of 15 patients this morning chose, for whatever reason, not to call, cancel, or show up. The weather is nice; kids are off school today. Maybe traffic was bad getting out of Disneyland yesterday, I really can't say. In addition to having time to blog (quite unusual on normally busy Mondays), I cleaned off my desk and emptied a box of crap that I brought from home six years ago. I discovered that it was still crap (just older stuff now), so I threw it away. I now have a top on my file cabinet, creating more room to put more stuff.

I hear a child screaming, so I think a patient is finally arriving. Fifteen-month olds scream for any reason. They hate medical people. They hate scales. They hate thermometers. At least there is only one of them. One day, I had triplet 15-month olds for physical exams and immunizations. That experience worsened my tinnitus, for sure.

If you have been a No Show in the past, your doctor may forgive you; once or maybe twice. Next time, pick up that phone and call. You can even lie and make up some elaborate excuses. We still won't believe you but we do enjoy those stories.

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