title: TPMG Northern California appointments and advice call center.
abstract: Kaiser Permanente (KP) has been developing its use of call centers as a way to provide an expansive set of healthcare services to KP members efficiently and cost effectively. Since 1995, when The Permanente Medical Group (TPMG) began to consolidate primary care phone services into three physical call centers, the TPMG Appointments and Advice Call Center (AACC) has become the "front office" for primary care services across approximately 89% of Northern California. The AACC provides primary care phone service for approximately 3 million Kaiser Foundation Health Plan members in Northern California and responds to approximately 1 million calls per month across the three AACC sites. A database records each caller's identity as well as the day, time, and duration of each call; reason for calling; services provided to callers as a result of calls; and clinical outcomes of calls. We here summarize this information for the period 2000 through 2003.
authors.affiliation: Appointments and Advice Call Center, Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program, 1800 Harrison Street, 5th Flr, Oakland, California 94612-3429, USA. patricia.conolly@kp.org
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Conolly
authors.forename: Leslie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Levine
authors.forename: Debra J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Amaral
authors.forename: Bruce H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Fireman
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Driscoll
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D002140:California; D002648:Child; D019992:Databases as Topic; D005260:Female; D006279:Health Maintenance Organizations / Q000458:organization & administration*; D015277:Hotlines; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D013685:Telecommunications / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data