Purpose: We evaluated the feasibility and time required for routine telephone communication with primary care physicians after cardiac procedures and surveyed primary care physicians as to their preferences for the method and content of reports of cardiac procedures.
Subjects and methods: A phone call was made within 1 day of the procedure during normal working hours to the primary care physician for all 414 patients who underwent cardiac catheterizations or interventions during a 1-year period. Subsequently, all 211 primary care physicians were mailed a questionnaire on the effectiveness of phone calls as compared with other communication methods.
Results: The primary care physician was reached with one call for 51% of patients and could not be contacted with up to five calls to office, clinic, or hospital for 32% of patients. Mean (+/- SD) phone time per patient was 4.1 (+/- 2.0) minutes. Surveys were returned by 119 (56%) of 211 referring physicians. Telephone communication was rated as "very helpful" by 69%. Most primary care physicians (86%) were "very" or "a little pleased" to receive phone calls. Survey respondents identified the summary of the results and the recommendations for treatment as the most important parts of the report. Respondents preferred personal phone calls or faxed reports to phone messages left with office staff, reports sent by electronic mail, or mailed written reports.
Conclusions: Most primary care physicians find personal phone calls helpful and desirable, but the effectiveness of routine phone calls is limited by the availability of primary care physicians during working hours and the time required for phonereporting.