Medical advice by telephone at Swedish health centres: who calls and what are the problems?

Advice by telephone is an important activity at Swedish health centres and is mainly dealt with by nurses. This telephone counselling was studied during one week (Monday to Friday) at six Swedish health centres which were representative of rural as well as of urban populations. Based on the figures obtained from this study it could be calculated that about 20 million calls of this type are dealt with at Swedish health centres each year (population of Sweden about eight million). It was more common for women than for men to contact the health centre by telephone. About 70% of the calls were made by the patients themselves. Pain was the most common reason for contacting the health centre by telephone, followed by signs of infection. The majority of the telephone calls dealt with sick care, a minority were classified as administrative. About 40% of all calls were managed by the telephone adviser without involving the doctor at the health centre. Of all incoming calls, 44% resulted in an appointment time for a visit to a physician at the health centre, more than half of these being given for a visit during the same day. As the telephone counsel function is an important part of the activity at a Swedish health centre, it is important to evaluate its content and consequences.