In just 10 weeks since its inception on October 1st, the "Nurseline" has received over 1,900 calls. Hospital spokeswoman Melissa Tymchuk said the new line was designed in part to provide information to patients and to reduce emergency room visits.
"It's not supposed to replace emergency room visits," Tymchuk said. "What we have is a staff nurse providing over-the-phone information and care to patients through a set of questions and hospital protocols. If we can take care of it without having them come in, that's great. If they need to come in, we tell them too."
The $180,000 program is being funded by the Medical Center Auxillary and is on a three-year trial-basis period.
With the program being so new, and with the recent outbreak of flu, Tymchuk said they have not been able to run the numbers on whether it has cut down on unneccesary ER visits.
"We've been overwhelmed with the flu and there's just no way yet to tell whether it has had an affect on bringing down the number of visits," Tymchuk said. "But once we get through this period, I'm sure we'll be looking at that."
Right now the hospital is only manning the number with one nurse. But the sheer volume of calls - about 25 per day on average so far without a lot of advertising - could make that change.
"We'll see how that works as this moves forward. It hasn't been a problem yet, but if gets bigger I'm sure we'll look at that," Tymchuk said.
The "Nurseline" number is (678)-343-INFO (4636).
http://accesswdun.com/article/2003/12/166410