title: Characteristics of patients who highly utilize telephone medical care in a private practice.
abstract: All patient telephone calls to a two-physician private family practice were recorded for a 2-month period. There were 1264 calls, of which 539 were patient-initiated calls for specific medical problems. The 21 patients responsible for four or more of these 539 calls were labeled high utilizers. Chart comparisons were done for high-utilizer and 20 control patients. Calls of high utilizers were also compared with all other calls. High utilizers were older and showed evidence of more emotional dysfunction, more face-to-face medical contacts, more medical problems in general, and a suggestion of less social support. They did not seem to use the telephone in place of face-to-face visits, but used it in addition to an also higher rate of direct physician encounters.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Missouri-Columbia.
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Daugird
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Spencer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms; D005194:Family Practice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009657:North Carolina; D009819:Office Visits / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010361:Patients / Q000523:psychology*; D011331:Private Practice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012424:Rural Population; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013689:Telephone