Reasons for after-hours calls.

Previous studies of after-hours calls to family physicians focused on caller demographics, medical triage skills, and patient satisfaction, and were usually conducted for a limited time. We examined the frequency and nature of calls to a family practice residency over 1 year. Caller and patient information, date, time, and chief complaint were obtained from answering service logs. The 5 most frequent chief complaints related to medications, pain, obstetric issues, fever, and nausea. Interestingly, 56 "high utilizers" (0.6% of all patients) accounted for 23% of the calls.