title: Retrospective analysis of phone queries to an epilepsy clinic hotline.
abstract: We undertook a retrospective study of 5,189 telephone calls made between January 2004 and June 2011 through our adult epilepsy clinic hotline to a single epileptologist initially and two epileptologists from June 2010 onwards. The majority of calls were made by patients themselves (72%), followed by family members (16%) and health care providers (11%). Half of the calls originated from outside the city limits. Most were related to medication (25%), notification of seizures (23%), appointments or tests (12%), and side effects (9%). Half of the workload was generated by 10% of patients. The hotline service appears to respond to needs, with most calls requiring rapid intervention. It is desirable to develop novel approaches to address the needs of high-frequency callers.
authors: Anny
authors: A
authors: Laforme
authors: Suzie
authors: S
authors: Jubinville
authors: Micheline
authors: M
authors: Gravel
authors: Patrick
authors: P
authors: Cossette
authors: Dang K
authors: DK
authors: Nguyen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006266:Health Education; D015277:Hotlines / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital; D011792:Quebec / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult