Original research article Comparing patients’ telephone calls after medical and surgical abortions Ellen Wiebe a, T , Dawn Fowler b , Konia Trouton a , Nancy Fu c a Department of Family Practice, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V5Z 1H9 b Victoria, BC, Canada c University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V5Z 1H9 Received 13 October 2004; revised 22 June 2005; accepted 21 July 2005 Abstract Objective: The purpose of this study is to monitor the content, timing of and response to telephone calls from medical and surgical abortion patients in order to improve the counseling and nursing care and allay patient’s concerns. Methods: There were 43 calls from a possible 626 surgical patients and 100 calls from a possible 671 medical patients. Calls were considered preventable in 67% of the medical patients and 46.5% of the surgical patients. Women who were having their first abortion were more likely to place preventable calls. Conclusions: Calls could be reduced by explaining variations in normal bleeding and how to use analgesics and providing this information in diagrammatic form on an information sheet. D 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Abortion, induced; Abortion, medical; Telephone calls 1. Introduction Patients who have abortions telephone medical office staff during office hours and doctors taking evening and weekend call. There is a dearth of literature regarding reasons for telephone calls from patients to their doctors. These calls are time-consuming and reflect patient anxiety and lack of knowledge. More knowledge about the content of the telephone calls may allow us to improve the counseling and nursing care and allay patient’s concerns. Early medical (i.e., nonsurgical) abortions are relatively new in North America because mifepristone was first marketed in the United States in 2000. For most medical abortions, assessment and follow-up are done by the physicians, and counseling and informed consent by trained counselors. The women take medication and abort later at home. In the surgical clinics, women receive counseling from trained counselors and postsurgical care from nurses. For both types of abortions, women are given material to take home and told to call the clinic rather than other health care providers for complications. A search of MEDLINE did not reveal any reports of telephone calls patients made after medical or surgical abortions. In a study of after-hours telephone calls received by practicing general and subspecialty internists, 44% to 47% of patient calls were for potentially serious problems. After 11 p.m., there was a decrease in the proportion of minor and trivial calls [1,2]. In another study of patient calls to general internists, doctors recommended changes to medical care in 12% of calls [3]. bHigh utilizersQ had less social support [4]. The purpose of this study is to record the content, timing of and response to telephone calls from medical and surgical abortion patients. Information about the type of telephone calls made by the medical abortion patients may help providers who are setting up medical abortion services as well as improve surgical abortion services. 2. Method This was an observational study approved by the University of British Columbia Behavioral Research Ethics Board. The objectives were to track the telephone calls from medical and surgical abortion patients between January 1 and April 1, 2002, and to record the content, the time of day and the response, and review the medical chart to obtain 0010-7824/$ – see front matter D 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.contraception.2005.07.013 T Corresponding author. Suite 1013-750 West Broadway, Vancouver BC V5Z 1H9 Tel.: +1 604 873 8303; fax: +1 604 873 8304. E-mail address: ellenwiebe@yahoo.ca (E. Wiebe). Contraception 73 (2006) 271 – 273