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Does Choose & Book fail to deliver the expected choice to patients? A survey of patients' experience of outpatient appointment booking.
- Source :
- BMC Medical Informatics & Decision Making; 2008, Vol. 8 Issue 1, Special section p1-8, 8p, 1 Diagram, 4 Charts
- Publication Year :
- 2008
-
Abstract
- <bold>Background: </bold>Choose and Book is a central part of the UK Government patient choice agenda that seeks to provide patients with a choice over the time, date and place of their first outpatient appointment. This is done through the use of a computerised booking system. After a 2004 pilot study, Choose and Book was formally launched in January 2006. This is the first study of patient experience of Choose and Book since then.<bold>Methods: </bold>A questionnaire survey of reported experience of choice over the time, data and place of appointment, carried out in a National Health Service hospital in London. 104 patients at their first outpatient appointment completed the questionnaire, consisting of a consecutive series of patients referred through Choose and Book and a sample referred through the conventional booking system.<bold>Results: </bold>Among the Choose and Book patients, 66% (31/47; 95% CI 52 to 78%) reported not being given a choice of appointment date, 66% (31/47; 95% CI 52 to 78%) reported not being given a choice of appointment time, 86% (37/43; 95% CI 74 to 94%) reported being given a choice of fewer than four hospitals in total and 32% (15/47; 95% CI 20 to 46%) reported not being given any choice of hospital.<bold>Conclusion: </bold>In this study, patients did not experience the degree of choice that Choose and Book was designed to deliver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- MEDICAL appointments
OUTPATIENT medical care
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 14726947
- Volume :
- 8
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- BMC Medical Informatics & Decision Making
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 35702166
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6947-8-36