title: Patient compliance with medical advice given by telephone.
abstract: Data on compliance with medical advice given by telephone consultation services are currently lacking. The aim of this study was to assess patient compliance with medical advice given by a call center. A cross-sectional telephone survey was carried out on a random sample of 463 callers 72 hours after contacting the Grenoble Dial 15 center in France. Four hundred nine subjects (88.3%) participated in the study. Of these, 286 callers (69.9%) complied with the medical advice given. Compliance was 61.4% among patients who were advised to treat themselves, 83.9% among patients who were advised to consult a general practitioner during business hours, and 64.0% among patients who were advised to go to an accident and ED (P <.01). The survey pointed out adverse events resulting from the service. Assessing patient compliance can be an important source of information for improving aspects of patient management provided by telephone consultation services.
authors.affiliation: Medical Evaluation Unit, University Hospital, Pavillon D. Villars, CHU-BP 217, 38 043 Grenoble cedex 9, France. jlabarere@chu-grenoble.fr
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Labarère
authors.forename: Jean-Pierre
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Torres
authors.forename: Patrice
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Francois
authors.forename: Magali
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fourny
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Argento
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Gensburger
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Menthonnex
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010349:Patient Compliance; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D013689:Telephone