Telephone medicine in a southern university private practice

Routine, office-hour, patient-directed telephone calls to a general and multi-specialty-university, private-practice clinic were surveyed. The calls were short, averaging 1 to 2 minutes. Two-thirds of the calls concerned medications, and 13% were for new medical problems. Patients called with a variety of chronic conditions and less commonly for new problems. Medications such as antihypertensives, antibiotics, and diuretics were prescribed and refilled. The role of telephone medicine in providing access in some managed-care settings is yet to be studied.