PEDIATRICS Vol. 64 No. 5 November 1979, pp. 558-563
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Development and Field Testing of Protocols for the Management of Pediatric Telephone Calls: Protocols for Pediatric Telephone Calls

Janice C. Levy MD1, Julia Rosekrans MD1, George A. Lamb MD1, Mark Friedman MD1, David Kaplan MD1, and Patricia Strasser MS1

1 Department of Medicine, The Children's Hospital Medical Center, and the Department of Pediatrics and Preventive and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston

Although telephone calls comprise almost one fourth of all childhood patient-physician contacts, the content of telephone care is not emphasized in most educational and service programs. In response to the need to improve management of telephone calls to our pediatric emergency room, we developed 28 protocols to deal with the 25 most common complaints presented by phone. This paper describes the content of these protocols, the training of the health assistants who administered them, and the measures we took to assure their safety and general utility in pediatric practice settings. The study demonstrates the feasibility of an organized system for telephone care based on protocols which include: (1) basic data to be collected for each chief complaint category; (2) a range of appropriate dispositions; and (3) advice for home management when the patient does not require an immediate medical visit. Potential uses of these protocols for medical and nursing education and for clinical service needs are discussed.

Submitted on February 1, 1979
Accepted on April 12, 1979




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[Abstract] [PDF]