PMC

Median total available healthcare charges by three-year telephone frequency category. Median cumulative charges (2009–2011) by cumulative telephone encounter category from 2009–2011 (A). Median total available annual charges by cumulative telephone encounter category (B).

A) Monthly log of outgoing and incoming telephone activity recorded by nursing staff at an IBD center during 2009 and 2010. The rise in call volume corresponded with a 26% rise in the IBD center's patient population from 2,475 patients in 2009 to 3,118 patients in 2010.
B) Telephone activity prospectively recorded in categories by nursing staff in 2009 and 2010.
C) Distribution of IBD registry patients based on their patterns of annual telephone encounters logged in the electronic medical record in 2009 and 2010. IBD patients were grouped into 4 categories: 0-1 calls/year (low telephone encounter (LTE)), 2-5 calls/year, 6-10 calls/year and > 10 calls/year (high telephone encounter (HTE)).
D) Distribution of total telephone encounters across the four categories of annual telephone encounter frequency. Patients in the LTE group were responsible for only 2% of the total number of telephone encounters in both 2009 and 2010. In contrast, patients in the HTE groups (15-16% of the total IBD registry population (Figure C)) were responsible for half of the telephone encounters each year.

Frequency and distribution of all the telephone calls including the reasons for the symptom-related and the not-symptom- related telephone calls.

Frequency response of IRS filter simulating frequency characteristics of telephone handsets.