No-shows

Hundreds fail to keep Health Center appointments

Students missing appointments at the University Health Center is becoming a problem.

Lois Kauffman, assistant director of clinical operations, said 240 students missed their appointments at the University Health Center from Jan. 10 to Feb. 11 without calling to cancel. This means that 60 hours worth of appointment times were wasted.

Kauffman said, on average, 2,603 appointments are scheduled each month, or an average of 635 appointments per week. This means that about 9.2 percent of appointments were skipped between Jan. 10 to Feb. 11.

Missed appointments lead to scheduling problems at the Health Center and make it difficult for other students to set up appointments. The vacant timeslots cannot be used for walk-ins due to time constraints, Kauffman said.

By 1:30 p.m. on Feb. 24, 13 of about 53 students who had appointments hadn’t shown up, even though each had received a reminder call prior to their appointment time. The Health Center recently has started calling students to remind them of appointments, Kauffman said.

The Health Center does not know the reason that appointments are missed since they do not receive any information from the student after they don’t show up, Kauffman said.

"I think that once [students] feel better, they don’t remember they have the appointment or think they need to call and cancel," said Ann Simmons, coordinator of Health Education and Wellness Programs.
Students should call at least an hour ahead of time to cancel their appointment so the timeslot can be used for someone else.

"Trying to make appointments is frustrating," freshman Jennifer Young said. "If people don’t show up, then people who need to get in can’t."

Some Virginia universities charge for missed appointments when students don’t call to cancel, Kauffman said.

"We want to help the [students] as much as possible," Kauffman said. "We are here for them."

Students are encouraged to arrive 15 minutes prior to their appointment to check-in and fill out paperwork. If students show up five minutes after their appointment time, they must reschedule.

"We do want to say thank you to the students who do call and cancel their appointment," Kauffman said. "We appreciate that very much."