Absence to scheduled medical appointments: perceptions of the users of the Family Health Strategy, Manguinhos, Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

Introduction: the reasons that lead users of the Family Health Strategy (FHS) to attend or not scheduled medical appointments must be known due to the negative impact that non-attendance can cause in the health service, including financial consequences and those related to the quality of care. Objective: to know the reasons for non-attendance and the users’ perception of the importance of attending scheduled appointments, identifying the reasons for non-attendance. Methods: quantitative and qualitative research, identifying non-attenders in two FHS teams of Academic Health Center, within a six months period, and conducting semi-structured interviews with 22 patients who missed or attended scheduled medical appointments. Results: the study found a non-attendance rate of 48.9% during the study period. The main reason for scheduling an appointment was to monitor one’s health, which can have various interpretations on the part of health professionals and patients. Among the reasons for non-attendance were forgetting the appointment and the fact that the appointment was scheduled for an inconvenient time. Some communication problems between users and the Health Unit were also identified, such as the impossibility of canceling the appointment without having to go to the health unit. Conclusions: the study identified aspects related to the organization of the health service and to the users that interfere with attendance, and also made it possible to propose measures to improve attendance, such as offering different ways for scheduling appointments, prior telephone contact and listening to the user.