Sustaining Low No-Show Rates for Diabetes Foot Screening Service Appointments
Care Process & Redesign
Yishun Health One Improvement Festival
National Healthcare Group
8 April 2025
Primary objective: Improve no-show rates for Admiralty Medical Centre (AdMC) Diabetes Foot Screening (DFS) Service. The improvement project met both primary and secondary objectives to reduce no-show rates and enhance patient safety, particularly for.
Year Submitted: 2025
Published Date: 08 April 2025
Tags: Care Process ＆ Redesign, Quality Improvement, Workflow Redesign, Patient Satisfaction, Value Based Care, Safe Care, Scheduling ＆ Planning, Operational Management, Resource Allocation
About this Content
Aims
Primary objective: Improve no-show rates for Admiralty Medical Centre (AdMC) Diabetes Foot Screening (DFS) Service. Secondary objective: Ensure minimal wastage of slots for DFS to allow patients who are stratified as 'Moderate' or 'High' risk to return timely for regular foot surveillance, enhancing patient safety and clinical outcomes.
Background
No-show rates prior to Aug 2020 were high at 32.5% with a 3-year average of 26.2% for Diabetes Foot Screening Service. Root cause analysis found difficulty in booking 'Moderate' and 'High' risk patients for their appointments due to requests for same-day appointments.
Methods
Instead of traditional appointments for 'Low' risk patients annually, these patients were advised to 'Walk-in' during regular doctor visits. This addressed the issue of no-show, freeing up slots for 'Moderate' and 'High' risk patients, providing same-day appointments where possible.
Results
The improvement project met both primary and secondary objectives to reduce no-show rates and enhance patient safety. No-show rates dropped from 42.3% pre-implementation to 10.1% immediately after implementation, demonstrating a 63% improvement. The improvement has been sustained for at least 4 years.
Conclusion
The improvement project met both primary and secondary objectives to reduce no-show rates and enhance patient safety, particularly for higher risk patients. It has proven to be an effective and sustainable solution.
Lessons Learnt
Providing same-day appointments reduces hassle for patients and family, ensures safe care for 'Moderate' and 'High' risk patients, and keeps staff happy, allowing better provision of services.
Additional Information
The sustained reduced no-show rates prove better catering to patient needs compared to pre-implementation. The 'link appointment' feature in EPIC helped alert the Contact Centre to change both doctor's and DFS service appointments when patients call to change appointments.
Keywords
No-Show Rates, Diabetes Foot Screening, Patient Safety, Podiatry
Innovators' Details
Innovators' Details
Healthcare Cluster(s) | National Healthcare Group |
Organization(s) Involved | Khoo Teck Puat Hospital |
Platform(s) | Yishun Health One Improvement Festival |
Healthcare Professional Group(s) | Allied Health, Healthcare Administration |
Applicable Specialty or Discipline | Podiatry, Healthcare Administrators |
Project Lead(s) | Law C.C.C |
Project Member(s) | Chong Li Ling |
Connect with this contributor!
KTPH & YCH Innovation & Improvement (I&I) Office - i-i@ktph.com.sg
Project Attachment
757_KTPH_OIF 2025_Sustaining low no show rates for diabetes foot .pdf