On-call
Out-of-hours Telephone Calls and Home Visits - A Practical Guide
Published on 1. September 1989
Book
Paperback/Softback
76 pages
978-0-19-261777-4 (ISBN)
Description
Out-of-hours work is an important and emotive issue in current general practice. How do general practitioners resolve the dilemmas of meeting the needs and wishes of their patients while preserving the doctor's (and the family's) rights to privacy and relaxation? How does the public view the services? Are there special clinical elements in this aspects of diagnosis and management? What does telecommunication technology have to offer? The issues raised in this book present information from the practical point of view of the family doctor wishing to provide personal and continuing care. Increasing consumerism in medicine, and concerns regarding quality assurance, make these issues relevant to entrants to general practice, for whom the book is written.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
bibliography
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 150 mm
Weight
125 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-261777-4 (9780192617774)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Content
Part 1 Setting the scene: aims and scope of the book; the out-of-hours dimension; telephone communications - constraints and opportunities; some definitions; a practical approach to the subject. Part 2 Organization and equipment: message-taking out of hours; organizing out-of-hours cover; training considerations; phone-sitting; documentation. Part 3 General principles: patients' view; how out-of-hours calls arise; contacting the doctor; the "emotional temperature"; doctors and the telephone; options and responses; efficient care and patient education. Part 4 Tactics: some features of visits; selective preparedness; patients and some common problems; relatives; weekend calls and visits; special availability; death and out-of-hours visits. Appendices: a code of out-of-hours telephone practice; an example of out-of-hours audit in a semi-rural practice; answering machines, diverters and pagers; educational exercises; discussion on points raised by the exercises.