SHORTSTORIES

AS A DOCTOR, HOW DO YOU FEEL WHEN A PATIENT DECIDES TO NOT SHOW UP FOR AN APPOINTMENT? Sometimes it’s not a decision. I was so worried about a patient not showing up once that I called the police to do a welfare check. They found him unresponsive on the floor with his oxygen not working. He ended up hospitalized for a long time, but he lived and eventually went home. He was very grateful. I went to see him in the hospital and he had just found my voicemail where I told him I was calling for the welfare check. He hadn’t until that moment had any idea how he’d been saved. For me, that was definitely a feel-good moment.

But more often, people just forget or their car breaks down or they have to take their sister to the ER; they don’t usually just decide not to come. My clinic calls to follow up. If they truly don’t want to come, that’s their choice. Either they aren’t invested in their health, which I do not have the skills or time to fix (other than perhaps referring them to mental health) or they don’t like me in particular, in which case everyone in my organization knows the process for requesting a new doctor.

When there’s a no-show I’ll think about my past interactions with the patient to see if there’s anything I identify that I could have done better, but that’s about it.