Appointment-breaking in a general medical clinic.

Appointment-breaking was studied in a general adult medical clinic. Selected demographic characteristics and indices of past clinic-use patterns for a group of patients who broke a given appointment were compared with those for a group of patients who kept a given appointment. The data were collected during a series of clinic sessions held in January 1967, at the Gouvereur Health Services Program in New York City. The overall broken appointment rate in the clinics was 22 per cent. There was a significantly higher proportion of Hispanics and Blacks as compared to Whites among the breakers than among the keepers. The breakers were also significantly younger than the keepers, most likely reflecting the White: Hispanic/Black age differential rather than being an independent variable. Among indices of past clinic-use patterns, the following differences between the two groups were statistically significant: Keepers had a higher average annual number of appointment visits, a higher percentage of kept appointments, and lower average annual numbers of broken appointments than did breakers. There were, however, no differences in the average annual number of non-appointment visits between breakers and keepers. The major conclusions of the study were that the breaker of a random appointment is more likely to be an habitual appointment-breaker than is a keeper of a random appointment and is also more likely to use the clinic on a non-appointment basis.