RESUMEN
OBJECTIVES: To estimate the organisational impact of the volume of appointments processed in the Primary Care (PC) Administration Units (AU) of Area 10, and to evaluate the effectiveness of organisational measures to correct the excess of appointments processed at particular times of day. DESIGN: Before-and-after intervention study. SETTING: AU of 16 PC teams from Madrid's Area 10. PARTICIPANTS: All the appointments made for users by 78 clerks in the 16 AU in the Area during the two weeks of the study. INTERVENTIONS: Strengthening of administrative staff dealing with the appointment system; and an information campaign for users about the system. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: The percentage of appointments processed by AU was broken down for morning and afternoon, by the way the appointment was made (telephone/counter) and by the scheduling of the list. The hourly development was analysed by a graph. A mean number of appointments per clerk per day was found. The above figures were compared for before and after intervention. CONCLUSIONS: The work load caused by the appointment system was redistributed by internal organisational measures, since user habits did not alter.