ABSTRACT
Objective: To study the rate of appointment postponing in Department of Surgery.Design : Retrospective, descriptive study.Setting : Surgical OPD, Srinagarind hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University.Subjects : All patients who have appointment with Department of Surgery during January 1, 1996 and December 31, 1996.Data collection: Review from the appointment book, database of Srinagarind hospital, and cards of medical record.Measurement: Descriptive statistics, including number, percentages, and means.Results: The appointment postponing occurred in 1,295 cases out of 2,402 patients (53.91%). These were divied in to 5 groups according to numbers of postponing: one time 1,064 cases (44.30%) , two times 175 cases (7.29%), three time 47 cases (1.96%), four time 6 cases (0.25%), and five times 3 cases (0.12%). The highest incidence of posponing occurred in the 3rd trimester (28.03%), while the lowest incidence occurred in the 1st trimester (22.24%). Postponin incidence mostly occurred in cardiovascular \& thoracic surgery 62.07% (288/464), while the postpoing incidence was lowest in pediatric surgery 32.58% (130/399). The causes of appointment postponing were 1) surgeons only 613 cases (47.34%), 2) patients only 563 cases (43.47%), and 3) both surgeons and patients 119 cases (9.19%). The division of which the surgeon was the major cause of postponing was neuro surgery (81.82%), in contrast with general surgery 2 (34.21%).Conclusions: The incidence of appointment postponig in Department of Surgery is 53.91% in 1996. Causes of postponment is similar from surgeon and patients. Neurosurgery has the highest incidence of postpoing from surgeon, while general surgery 2 has the lowest incidence. The highest incidence of postponing is in the 3rd trimester.Keywords : (1) Appointment postponing (2) Outpatient (3) Surgery