Premium
Paediatric telephone consultation — a neglected area of health service delivery
Author(s) -
OBERKLAID FRANK,
BELL JAN,
DUKE VAL
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
journal of paediatrics and child health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.631
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1440-1754
pISSN - 1034-4810
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1754.1984.tb00056.x
Subject(s) - medicine , pediatrics , telephone survey , vomiting , medical emergency , family medicine , surgery , business , marketing
Telephone enquiries to a large paediatric institution were monitored over a 4 week period. Of the 1764 calls handled during this period (an average of 63 per day), over 75% sought advice regarding symptoms of illness in their children. The commonest were to do with vomiting and diarrhoea, fever, infectious disese, respiratory symptoms and feeding problems. It is suggested that it is no longer appropriate for such calls to be handled in an ad hoc manner as is the custom in most hospitals, but that specific telephone protocols be developed and evaluated to address this important area of paediatric consultation.