[The first telephone call at emergency admissions--the role of nurses]

The article focuses on whom in the hospital the general practitioners first inform when referring emergency patients. The study is based on interviews with general practitioners and hospital interns, and questionnaires answered by 532 doctors, selected from hospital areas where the primary doctor on call usually is an intern. Three fourths of the respondents state that the general practitioner when referring patients usually gives the clinical information directly by phone to an intern. The remaining state that general practitioners normally inform a hospital nurse about emergency admissions. The quality of communication, and the respect developed between general practitioners and interns is perceived as being better when there is a direct communication between the general practitioner and the hospital doctor, bypassing the nurse. The interns respect the admission decisions of the general practitioners to a significantly larger degree, and claim that necessary information about the patient is easier to obtain when they routinely communicate with the general practitioners. In our opinion, the present study gives reason to recommend a direct telephone contact between the referring general practitioner and the hospital intern as part of emergency admissions.