Developing a physicians' palliative care pain hotline in Maryland

Physicians have had relatively little formal training in pain management and palliative care. For this reason, a telephone consultation service was offered, the physicians' palliative care pain hotline, that would allow physicians to call a toll-free number and, within 15 minutes, speak to a board-certified physician in hospice and palliative medicine. To our knowledge, this is the first program of its kind. This article describes the process involved in creating such a pain hotline and reports on some data collected on its use in the first 10 months. This report should help others who have an interest in establishing a similar program.