It’s time that we all stopped standing up our doctors.
That’s the message behind a sign campaign that’s gaining steam at medical clinics in St. Albert and throughout the province.
Signs are popping up in waiting rooms showing a running tally of the number of appointments that patients aren’t showing up for. The number reached 93 at Associate Medical Clinic in downtown St. Albert in February, the first month the clinic has used such a sign.
That amounts to four days worth of appointments for one doctor, said Dr. Allan McDonald.
“I’m not seeing a patient and somebody who needs to get in cannot get in so they’re wasted appointments,” he said.
No-shows are a perennial problem for doctors, McDonald said, but it’s particularly troubling now given that the province is experiencing a severe shortage of family doctors. Alberta is short about 1,500 doctors, according to estimates from the Alberta Medical Association.
“If you made a coffee date with someone and you can’t show up, you call them and say I can’t make it,” he said. “Common courtesy to me is, if you’re not going to show up, you call.”
It’s possible that some people don’t bother calling because they think it’s too late to fill the spot, but McDonald would rather get the call regardless. He gets enough queries from people trying to get in that often 30 minutes or an hour can be enough notice.
“I had two or three patients call this morning to cancel and those spots are filled,” he said Thursday.
His clinic got the idea to post no-show information from Alberta AIM, which stands for access, improvement, measure. This government initiative started in 2007 and tries to improve access to health care through workshops with medical clinics.
Two strategies that AIM recommends are to measure no-show data and post it in the waiting room. Other strategies are to reduce wait times, issue reminders and have systems in place that make cancelling easy, said provincial co-ordinator Julie Shemanchuk.
The no-show signs are particularly popular.
“I’m hearing more and more that they’re coming up,” she said.
She knows of a clinic in Two Hills that put an advertisement in the local paper. McDonald has heard other doctors talk about “firing” patients and/or making them pay to come back.
“We’ve never tried those,” McDonald said. His clinic now has an automated system that allows patients to leave a message, so cancelling by phone is easier.
The Liberton Medical Clinic has been posting a no-show tally for two years, believing it helps make patients aware.
“A lot of doctors are doing it because their time is so valuable now,” said the clinic’s business manager Wendy Morison.
The clinic offers specialty services that involve hour-long appointments with a doctor and technician. Having those go unfilled is expensive, prompting the clinic to charge re-booking fees of $25 and $50 for repeat offenders.
“People are complaining about long waits and then they don’t show up,” Morison said.
St. Albert resident Mike Killick was so bothered after seeing a sign at his doctor’s office that he wrote a letter to the editor, which was published in the Gazette last month.
“I was just disheartened and almost in disbelief,” he said. “We’re really quick to complain but … we’re part of the problem. We’re wasting appointments that could be available for people.”
