Exploring Delay to Follow-Up in a Rural Multidisciplinary Cleft Clinic.

Background: Oral clefts require longitudinal multidisciplinary care with follow-up visits at regular intervals throughout a patient's childhood, and delayed care can be detrimental. Although loss to follow-up is commonly studied, this metric does not account for patients that do return to care, but months or years later than recommended. The aim of this study was to explore and determine risk factors for delay to follow-up (DTFU) in a cleft clinic at a rural academic center.