Telephone calls to an infectious diseases fellow.

OBJECTIVE

There is no information on the impact and nature of telephone calls directed to subspecialists. The main objective was to document prospectively all calls directed to a first-year infectious diseases fellow, to determine their content, origin, educational value, and time allocation.

RESULTS

Three hundred fifty-nine calls were received over a 71-day period from March 24 through May 20, 1992. The mean number of daily calls was 5.1 +/- 3.3. Mean time per call was 7 +/- 5.4 minutes. Cumulatively, 41.7 hours were spent responding to telephone calls. The subgroup with the most calls (44.3%) was from pediatricians in practice. Seventy percent of calls were for advice about case management. Forty percent of calls were considered educational to the fellow.

CONCLUSIONS

This study confirms the importance of the infectious disease subspecialist as a resource for primary care physicians.