Patient no-shows often have complicated reasons behind them

"I typed up a brief response to the no show memo, hit reply, and then deleted the original message. It’s not that I am a fan of wasting time and resources, but for now, I have a general personal policy to never dismiss pregnant patients. I’d have to try to address her barriers to care.  Again.  Our clinic tended to be a safety net for health care in the city, if I dismissed her, where would she go?  I do believe people can be changed.  Also, help me when I really don’t believe it."

Erin Hoffman is a family physician.

She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "The patient who no-shows." (https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/05/the-patient-who-no-shows.html)