Improving Utilization of an Adolescent Clinic: Relating the Intake Process to Previous Care and Referral Source

With a conventional intake procedure and with a modification which included asking par ents of prospective patients of an adolescent clinic to complete a history form prior to the patient's first visit, patients whose previous source of medical care was nonspecafic used significantly less care than those patients accus tomed to obtaining care from a specific source. Rearrangement of the intake process to include a preliminary interview with parents was as sociated with elimination of this difference. Furthermore, the data generated by the prelimi nary history form filled out at home did not prove to be clinically helpful. It would seem wise, therefore, to offer the assistance of an interview to parents of those adolescents whose medical care during the preceding five years was obtained from multiple sources or none at all.