Telephone calls to an infectious diseases fellow.

Objective: There is no information on the impact and nature of telephone calls directed to subspecialists. The main objective was to document prospectively all calls directed to a first-year infectious diseases fellow, to determine their content, origin, educational value, and time allocation.
Results: Three hundred fifty-nine calls were received over a 71-day period from March 24 through May 20, 1992. The mean number of daily calls was 5.1 +/- 3.3. Mean time per call was 7 +/- 5.4 minutes. Cumulatively, 41.7 hours were spent responding to telephone calls. The subgroup with the most calls (44.3%) was from pediatricians in practice. Seventy percent of calls were for advice about case management. Forty percent of calls were considered educational to the fellow.
Conclusions: This study confirms the importance of the infectious disease subspecialist as a resource for primary care physicians.