Background: Subspecialists are often called on to provide informal or "curbside" telephone consultation. There is limited documentation of the time spent on, content, nature and source of such consultations by pediatric infectious disease (PID) specialists. Nursing staff frequently assist physicians by triaging telephone calls. No previous studies have examined this aspect of their role in subspecialty practice.
Methods: We prospectively recorded all telephone calls to a newly established PID program for 1 year. Results were entered into a database and analyzed using the ABSTAT software.
Results: A total of 621 calls were received by the PID specialist and 1,260 by the PID nurse from March 1, 1999, through February 29, 2000. The mean number of calls per month was 51.8 +/- 24.8 for the physician and 105 +/- 43.3 for the nurse. The mean time spent per call was 9.6 +/- 5.9 min for the physician and 3.3 +/- 1.4 min for the nurse. A total of 103.5 h were spent directly on telephonic consultation/communication by the physician and 68.7 h by the nurse, respectively. Of the calls to the physician 78.6% came from other physicians, 51.5% being pediatricians in practice and 57% involving case management. Calls to the nurse were primarily from the laboratory (26.3%), with 93% regarding patients seen on the inpatient or outpatient service.
Conclusions: Telephone consultation/communication is an integral and important part of a PID practice.