The nature and content of physician telephone calls in a private practice

Telephone encounters received by two physicians in a private rural family practice setting were examined over a 61-day sampling period. A total of 1,264 calls were received during the study period, with 905 (71.6 percent) being received in the office setting. An average of 10.4 calls per physician were received each day, and a mean of 16.2 minutes per physician was spent each day with telephone encounters. Each call was brief, lasting 1.6 minutes (standard deviation 1.5 minutes); administrative and personal calls each lasted significantly longer than other call categories (F = 20.8, P = .0001). More chronic disease diagnoses tended to be handled during office when compared with nonoffice telephone encounters. The majority of calls (932, or 83.1 percent) did not require a face-to-face visit as judged by the physician. Of the office calls, 58.2 percent were handled by the physicians through a message system rather than a direct physician telephone call. It is estimated that uncharged care over the telephone saved patients in this practice up to $150,000 per year.