Outpatients Visits?

[gipaeniug]

Hey all,

Hope everyone is staying safe during all this chaos.

I'm currently in a short study as we speak, that's close to finishing up, one that has quite a few outpatient visits hereafter. Lasting several months. I don't think I'm going to be able to make any of them, do to family issues that transpired right before dosing. My question is what are the penalties, if any, for missing outpatient visits (like, all of them). Obviously I wont get paid for missed visits. I'm just wondering if I will be penalized for future studies with this particular clinic? Will they be understanding when I call and let them know I cant make them (any of them!). I don't plan on doing any more studies with outpatient visits anyway, this was just a fluke. 

If any of you have experience skipping out of your OP's or know somebody that has, please let me know! Thank you guys.

[idoitforthepong]

Each clinic will have different policies but you likely wont get a completion bonus and possibly black listed...either for a few months or maybe forever. I do know most places can be accommodating to arrange a different day if it's not too far away from original OPV, but they don't like to broadcast this since it isn't ideal for them.

[gipaeniug]

Hey idoitforthepong,

Thank you so much for your reply!I hope I won't be black listed.

[labrat1]

Sometimes it can depend. When there are a lot of OPV and a volunteer decides early on to opt out of them, it reflects badly on the volunteer. Of course if it is not seen by the staff to be the volunteer's poor sense of commitment, then it is because the volunteer appears to have too many things going on in his or her life that prevent him/her from seeing the entire study through. In either case the staff can think that the volunteer is not the right material for studies. A volunteer has to be flexible and know that s/he can stay in the study.
Then too, some clinics are understanding and will forgive one opt-out but may keep an eye on the volunteer to make sure it is not some habit.

Maybe you can talk with the coordinator about it.