title: Direct patient telephone access to the coronary care unit: its use and impact on admission delays.
abstract: Direct telephone access for patients to the Hutt Hospital coronary care unit (CCU) was established in 1989. This paper describes initial experience of 200 consecutive calls and a subsequent study of its impact on admission delays in a further 295 patients. The majority of calls were received between 4 am and noon. Those relating to chest pain made between 4 and 8 am were more likely to be followed by admission than at other times, p less than 0.001. Use of the direct line was associated with quicker admission, 212 (SE 23.2) min compared with 359.2 (23.0), p less than 0.001. For patients with myocardial infarction the difference was even greater, 115 (28.9) (median 90 min) compared with 344.9 (18.9) (median 212 min), p less than 0.001. We conclude that free telephone access to the CCU is a valuable aid to acute coronary care.
authors.affiliation: Coronary Care Unit, Wellington School of Medicine and Hutt Hospital.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dewar
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Logan
mesh_terms: D002637:Chest Pain; D003325:Coronary Care Units / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D015277:Hotlines / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D009520:New Zealand; D010343:Patient Admission; D015397:Program Evaluation; D013997:Time Factors