Do all patients attending genitourinary medicine services want to be seen within 48 hours?

Rooney, G; Smith, Y. Monique Davis; Montgomery, J. C.

doi:10.1258/ijsa.2007.007300

Cited by 9 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 1 publication

(1 reference statement)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…It has also been demonstrated that when the availability of appointments becomes limited then a higher proportion of patients accept the appointment offered. 7 The total number of records and the decliner rate for 48-hour appointments was higher than anticipated from our GUMAMM data. The proportion of altered appointments may explain this, as these will not be captured by the electronic system used for the GUMAMM data.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 58%

Uptake of 48-hour access appointments in genitourinary medicine

Carlin

Kellock

2008

Int J STD AIDS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Timely access to genitourinary (GU) medicine services is important in the control of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). A target has been set that by March 2008, 100% of patients will be offered a GU medicine appointment within 48 hours. Strategic Health Authorities have also been asked to plan for 95% of patients to be seen within 48 hours. We sought to identify why patients decline appointments offered within 48 hours by collecting prospective data over three months. Additional data was collected over 18 working days to identify if alternative options would be acceptable to decliners. Overall, 1577 patients contacted the clinic, 1524 (96.6%) were offered a 48-hours appointment, 1108 (72.7%) accepted it, 416 (27.3%) declined it and 66.3% citing work commitments as the reason. In 118 patients, who declined the appointment offered; 43.2% indicated no alternative option was acceptable, 23.7% chose a Saturday appointment, which in 78.6% would have exceeded 48 hours. Hence, 73 (61.9%) patients would not have accepted an appointment within 48 hours. The balance of public health control, mixed service provision and informed patient choice is discussed.

show abstract

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 58%

Uptake of 48-hour access appointments in genitourinary medicine

Carlin

Kellock

2008

Int J STD AIDS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Sir: We strongly support the suggestions by Carlin et al 1 and by Rooney et al 2 A significant proportion of would-be attendees to genitourinary (GU) medicine departments prefer to select an appointment time that suits their social, domestic and working lives than to have their access restricted by compulsory 48-hour attendance targets.…”

mentioning

confidence: 57%

Respecting patient choice on access

2008

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…2 Furthermore, Strategic Health Authorities were asked to plan for 95% of patients to actually be seen within 48 hours; 3 however, this target has been controversial with some centres reporting that this is not always necessary, or indeed desired, by patients. 4,5 Several previous studies have addressed the potential reasons why patients decline an appointment to attend services within 48 hours. 4,6 -8 Common themes that have emerged include lifestyle factors such as work or family commitments 6,7 and therefore the desire to attend clinics at certain times including those at evenings or weekends.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acceptance of genitourinary medicine clinic appointments within 48 hours is influenced by patient perception of risk but not by symptoms

Steedman¹,

Worsnop

Fernie

2009

Int J STD AIDS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Department of Health has addressed access to genitourinary medicine services by setting targets that 100% of patients should be offered an appointment within 48 hours of contact and 95% should be seen within 48 hours. Such rapid access appointments are often declined by patients. We wished to ascertain whether patient perception of health risk or the presence of symptoms suggestive of a sexually transmitted infection (STI) might influence how quickly patients accept an appointment. We designed a two-armed study which demonstrated that up to 37% of patients offered an appointment within 48 hours declined it, with work commitments offered by 84% of these patients as the reason for deferring attendance. The presence of symptoms did not influence whether patients accepted an early appointment, however the patient's perception of health risk associated with an untreated STI was statistically significantly associated with earlier attendance (P < 0.0001). Increased public education regarding the consequences of untreated STI may therefore improve the acceptance by patients of appointments within 48 hours.

show abstract

Do all patients attending genitourinary medicine services want to be seen within 48 hours?

Abstract: At a time of high capacity almost 40% of patients declined an appointment within 48 hours. Data were collected prospectively on the reasons why, and the impact of demand exceeding capacity.

Cited by 9 publications

References 1 publication

Uptake of 48-hour access appointments in genitourinary medicine

Uptake of 48-hour access appointments in genitourinary medicine

Respecting patient choice on access

Acceptance of genitourinary medicine clinic appointments within 48 hours is influenced by patient perception of risk but not by symptoms

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About