ANALYSIS OF PEDIATRIC EMERGENCY DEPARTMEN T TELEPHONE CALLS

Background. - Telephone calk for advice are common in pediatric emerge ncy departments. This study was conducted to determine the nature of t hese calk; and the answers provided. Methods. - From 24 April through 24 July 1994, all telephone calls requesting pediatric advice in the e mergency department of the Poissy Hospital were independently analysed by two pediatricians from forms prospectively filled infer each call by the resident or the attending people who answered the call. Results . - Of the 239 registered calls, 186 could be analysed. They represent ed, in number, 15.25% of the children seen at the same emergency depar tment during the study period. Weekend and holiday calls accounted for 35.5% of calls. 7.8% of calls were received from 0:01 am to 8:00 am, 28.7% from 8:01 am to 4:00 pm, and 63.52 from 4:01 pm to 12:00 pm. Thi rty-seven percent concerned children under one pear of age. The caller was one of the parents in 93% of cases. The four most frequent compla ints were fewer (26.5%), requests for information (17.2%), rash (12.3% ), and vomiting (10.2%). The review of calls by two pediatricians dete rmined that 67% of children did not need to be seen by a physician wit hin six hours; 28% needed to be seen within 6 hours, and 5% needed to be seen within one hour. The advice given was followed in 88% of cases ; 96% of callers were satisfied with their calls management. Conclusio ns. - Telephone advice constitutes an important part of the activity i n the pediatric emergency department. Instructional programs in teleph one management are necessary for physicians. These programs should inc lude communication skills and familiarization with protocols concernin g the most frequent complaints, especially those regarding children un der one year of age.