title: Telephone reporting in the consultant-generalist relationship.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this paper is to examine the issue of telephone reporting by consultants in the medical community, which is rarely used in medicine today.
  
  
  METHODS
  The paper reviews principal publications addressing this field that have shown that communication between consultants and primary care physicians has many shortcomings, frequently leaving the primary care physician with unanswered questions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We present the value of routine telephone reporting by consultants to their primary care counterparts and also discuss possible future implications of communication via electronic mail.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, PA 17822, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Haldis
authors.forename: James C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Blankenship
mesh_terms: D003142:Communication; D003144:Communication Barriers; D005194:Family Practice; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D019114:Remote Consultation; D014481:United States