Appointment failures in a group family practice.

Appointment failures, including 'no shows' and cancellations, were studied in a Montreal group practice of seven family physicians. The appointment failure rate (10.9%) was low compared to that found in community health centres and outpatient clinics; however, appointment failures were still a significant problem. Patients' most frequent reason for failing to keep or cancel appointments was forgetfulness. Reminding patients of their scheduled appointments by telephone appeared to reduce the 'no show' rate, but had no effect on the cancellation rate.