Choosing and booking—and attending? Impact of an electronic booking system on outpatient referrals and non‐attendances

Mark Dusheiko and Hugh Gravelle

Health Economics, 2018, vol. 27, issue 2, 357-371

Abstract: Patient non‐attendance can lead to worse health outcomes and longer waiting times. In the English National Health Service, around 7% of patients who are referred by their general practice for a hospital outpatient appointment fail to attend. An electronic booking system (Choose and Book—C&B) for general practices making hospital outpatient appointments was introduced in England in 2005 and by 2009 accounted for 50% of appointments. It was intended, inter alia, to reduce the rate of non‐attendance. Using a 2004–2009 panel with 7,900 English general practices, allowing for the relaxation of constraints on patient of hospital, and for the potential endogeneity of use of C&B, we estimate that the introduction of C&B reduced non‐attendance by referred patients in 2009 by 72,160 (8.7%).

Date: 2018
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https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.3552

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:27:y:2018:i:2:p:357-371

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