Patient safety in after-hours telephone medicine.

Objectives: This study analyzed our family medicine department's after-hours telephone medicine systems at an academic health center from a patient safety perspective. The research questions were (1) What are the threats to patient safety associated with after-hours telephone medicine and (2) What kinds of errors are made during after-hours telephone medicine?

Methods: Subjects were patients at the University of Kentucky family medicine practice who called in to the after-hours answering service. Telephone interviews were conducted with 64 patients over 10 weeks.