Root Cause Analysis of Missed Appointments

Abstract

Objective: Missed appointments are a global issue, particularly in mental health. Missed appointments cause reduced client outcomes and increased stress on providers. This project is to reduce missed client appointments in a small mental health practice in the US. It is often assumed that clients miss appointments due to a lack of commitment to treatment. Method: In a small mental health practice setting, clients who had missed multiple appointments and would have received a letter of warning or termination were given a survey to find out what barriers were causing it to be challenging to maintain appointments. Then interventions were done to assist these patients/clients and help them keep their appointments, and a second survey was done to assess the interventions. Results: All of the participants who received an intervention maintained their appointments. Conclusion: The participants demonstrate that they are dedicated to treatment but have barriers causing them to miss multiple appointments. Contacting participants to find out the barriers and then assisting in removing those barriers significantly decreased missed appointments.