The Relationship Between Wait Time After Triage and Show Rate for Intake in a Nonurgent Student Population

Ideally, students requesting services should be seen quickly at their university counseling center to increase the likelihood of a successful treatment outcome. However, in these times of ever-increasing demand for university counseling services and the challenges of securing resources to keep up with that demand, the reality of prompt appointments can be far different during most of the academic year. This study looked at the relationship between wait time after triage and show rate for intake at a large counseling center that uses a triage walk-in-clinic format for students accessing services. Although triage allows for an appropriate rapid response to the most at-risk students, we were concerned about attrition among “average” students seeking counseling, assessed as nonurgent at triage, during the wait for their intake. The current study found a statistically significant positive relationship for this nonurgent population between length of wait time after triage and no-show rate for the scheduled intake after triage. We present preliminary thoughts about these findings, discuss our study limitations, and pose future research questions.