Golan Ron, Haas Christopher, Shah Ojas
Department of Urology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center-New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York, New York.
Urol Pract. 2021 Mar;8(2):309-313. doi: 10.1097/UPJ.0000000000000181. Epub 2020 Aug 4.
Many urology practices offer after-hours answering services through which patients or outside providers may access an on-call provider. These lines of communication are often unfiltered, allowing for a combination of urgent and non-urgent matters to reach the provider. The objective of this study was to evaluate the nature and frequency of after-hours phone calls among urological subspecialties.
Phone calls occurring after-hours during the week (5 pm-7:59 am), weekends, and federal holidays were captured over 2019. The patient's provider and reason for calling were captured. The adult subspecialties included were endourology, oncology, reconstructive urology, female urology/voiding dysfunction, andrology/sexual medicine, and multispecialty/general. The reason for calling was categorized as either urgent/non-avoidable or non-urgent/avoidable, and the volume of after-hours and overnight calls was compared amongst subspecialties using the number of calls per 100 unique patients.
There were 2,224 after-hours calls over the 1-year period; 48% of telephone calls were regarding urgent matters, while the remainder were non-urgent or potentially avoidable. Reconstructive and endourology had the highest number of after-hours calls (34.8 calls and 17.3 calls per 100 patients, respectively). Reconstructive received the most urgent overnight phone calls at 3 calls per 100 patients, followed by oncology (1.55 per 100 patients) and endourology (1.35 per 100 patients).
Each urological subspecialty has varying acuity, which may influence the number of after-hours calls. Providers and their staff should optimize their work flow through triaging, counseling, and education in order to reduce the number of non-urgent after-hours calls.
许多泌尿外科诊所提供非工作时间接听服务，患者或外部医疗机构可通过该服务联系值班医生。这些沟通渠道通常没有筛选，紧急和非紧急事务都可能传达给医生。本研究的目的是评估泌尿外科各亚专业非工作时间电话的性质和频率。
收集2019年期间周一至周五下午5点至上午7点59分、周末及联邦节假日的非工作时间来电。记录患者的医生及致电原因。纳入的成人亚专业包括腔内泌尿外科、肿瘤学、重建泌尿外科、女性泌尿外科/排尿功能障碍、男科学/性医学以及多专科/普通泌尿外科。致电原因分为紧急/不可避免或非紧急/可避免两类，使用每100名独特患者的呼叫次数比较各亚专业非工作时间和夜间的呼叫量。
在这1年期间共有2224次非工作时间来电；48%的电话涉及紧急事务，其余为非紧急或可能可避免的事务。重建泌尿外科和腔内泌尿外科的非工作时间来电次数最多（分别为每100名患者34.8次和17.3次）。重建泌尿外科接到的紧急夜间电话最多，为每100名患者3次，其次是肿瘤学（每100名患者1.55次）和腔内泌尿外科（每100名患者1.35次）。
每个泌尿外科亚专业的急症程度不同，这可能影响非工作时间的呼叫次数。医生及其工作人员应通过分诊、咨询和教育优化工作流程，以减少非紧急的非工作时间来电次数。
