Patient’s appointment compliance refers to the willingness and ability of a patient to attend to their scheduled clinical appointment. Failure to do so have various consequences, especially so for a teaching clinic such as the Optometry Clinic, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). The percentage of appoinment compliance at the Optometry Clinic was analysed from September to December 2015. Compliance rate was categorised based on clinic type and session, and on patient’s gender and ethnicity. Attendance compliance was around 60% for the Primary Care Clinic. It increased to 70% for patients with vision problems who where referred to specialty clinics i.e. Low Vision and Paediatric Clinics. Clinic day and session did not influence compliance significanly (p > 0.05). Patient’s gender and ethnicity did not influence compliance significantly as well but those of Indian ethnicity consistently showed the lowest appointment compliance rates. A protocol should be developed to increase the rate of patients’ appoinment compliance. This would then maximise productivity of students and clinic staff and optimise the clinic’s resources. The cost of each clinical session could be informed to the patients, even when the cost is not borne by them.
Keywords: Appointment compliance; Optometry Clinic; appointments; clinical teaching and learning; public health
Study site: Optometry clinic, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia