title: Spectrum of advice and curbside consultations of infectious diseases specialists.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Curbside consultation (CC) of infectious diseases specialists for advice is very frequent but the corresponding workload has rarely been assessed. This activity is mostly oral (phone or direct contact) and poorly quantifiable because it is not charged. We had for aim to evaluate this activity in a French teaching hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  We recorded all CCs given during a 2.5-year period, from mid-2011 to the end of 2013.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During the study period, 6789 CCs were recorded (2715 per year), or slightly more than 10 per day. These CCs were divided in 676 travel recommendations and 6113 for other reasons. They were mostly given by phone (77.4%). Most demands came from our hospital (61.4%), followed by community family physicians and specialist (27.1%), other local hospitals (6.5%) and clinics (4.3%). All the departments in our hospital consulted us for advice at least once and answers were mainly given by phone (70.1%) and at bedside (30.5%). The answers were principally advice (50.8%), modification of antibiotic prescription (22.9%), initiation of antibiotic course (14.8%), maintaining the same treatment (6.2%), and stopping antibiotics (4.3%). CCs accounted for 20% of clinical work for 1 physician. If the CCs in our hospital had been paid, our department would have received an additional 77,000€ in revenue.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This curbside activity is very important and time-consuming for infectious diseases specialists, but it is currently not acknowledged or rewarded.
authors.affiliation: Service de maladies infectieuses et tropicales, CHU Dupuytren, 2, avenue Martin-Luther-King, 87000 Limoges, France. Electronic address: e.denes@free.fr.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Denes
authors.affiliation: Service de maladies infectieuses et tropicales, CHU Dupuytren, 2, avenue Martin-Luther-King, 87000 Limoges, France.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pinet
authors.affiliation: Service de maladies infectieuses et tropicales, CHU Dupuytren, 2, avenue Martin-Luther-King, 87000 Limoges, France.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cypierre
authors.affiliation: Service de maladies infectieuses et tropicales, CHU Dupuytren, 2, avenue Martin-Luther-King, 87000 Limoges, France.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Durox
authors.affiliation: Service de maladies infectieuses et tropicales, CHU Dupuytren, 2, avenue Martin-Luther-King, 87000 Limoges, France.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ducroix-Roubertou
authors.affiliation: Service de maladies infectieuses et tropicales, CHU Dupuytren, 2, avenue Martin-Luther-King, 87000 Limoges, France.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Genet
authors.affiliation: Service de maladies infectieuses et tropicales, CHU Dupuytren, 2, avenue Martin-Luther-King, 87000 Limoges, France.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Weinbreck
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007239:Infections; D008511:Medicine; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: Activity; Activité; Advice; Conseils; Curbside; Infectious diseases; Maladies infectieuses; Transversalité