Patients reporting on appointment date after access opening for further treatment to dental hospital - A cross sectional study

Abstract

Failure to keep dental appointments is one of the problems affecting the outcome of treatment. Keeping dental appointments enhances patient care while failure to keep appointments can result in poor prognosis, economic cost and patient care disruption.The aim of the present study was to evaluate the number of patients reporting on appointment date after access opening for further treatment to dental hospital. 4490 met inclusion criteria, only 981 patients reported on the given appointment date. Data was tabulated into excel sheets. Then data was analyzed using SPSS software(23.0 version). Statistical analysis of the material was performed using Chi square test. Number of patients reported to the hospital on the appointment date were only 27.3% (1225) patients, 72.7% (3265) of patients did not report back on the given appointment date. In the present study 1225 patients reported for further treatment, 488 patients of 18-30 age group reported back for further treatment, more number of male patients(665) reported back for further treatment, more number of patients (132) with complaints in relation to 36,46 reported back for further treatment.Failure to keep dental appointments was high in the present study. Being busy with other activities and long distance were some reasons for failed appointments.