Missed appointments at a university hospital in eastern saudi arabia: magnitude and association factors.

Unlabelled: Missed appointment is a common problem in ambulatory settings that has serious clinical and economic impacts. The present study aims at quantifying the burden of missed appointments and revealing the factors associated with it at a teaching hospital in Eastern Saudi Arabia. Two designs were used: a retrospective descriptive design to describe the magnitude of missed appointments during the year 2007, and a case-control design to identify factors associated with missed appointment.