Off-hour telephone calls to a geriatric home care team.

This is a study of off-hour telephone calls to a physician/nurse practitioner/social worker team available on a round-the-clock basis to a population, averaging 54 in number, of chronically or terminally ill home-bound elderly patients. Most calls could reasonably be considered urgent and appropriate, and only about three per month necessitated immediate home visits: the off-hours time demand is not excessive and can be managed with appropriate practice organization and provider-patient understanding.