The resident leaves the clinic: the effects of changing physicians on appointment-keeping behavior.

To understand the effect that termination of an established physician-patient relationship has on patient attendance patterns in a medical clinic, appointment scheduling and patient attendance were measured for 210 patients before and after 11 senior resident physicians left the clinic. There was no significant change in appointment scheduling, although the number of unscheduled or "drop-in" visits increased (p = 0.02). Likewise, patient attendance patterns did not differ between study periods. Overall the termination of an established relationship between an internist and a patient in this hospital-based general medicine clinic had no effect on appointment scheduling and patient attendance.