Hospital Paging Could Be Cut

The number of times a doctor is paged in the hospital could be reduced by as much as 42%, giving physicians more time to rest and spend uninterrupted time with patients. Drs. Mitchell Katz and Steven Schroeder of UC San Francisco studied the paging system at three hospitals during three-day periods between February and June, 1987.

In findings reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers found that the interns in the study were paged an average of once an hour, and on 24 occasions they were paged five or more times in one hour.

Most of the pages, 65%, occurred when interns were engaged in patient care. Only 34% of the pages were deemed both to require a response within one hour and result in a change in patient care.

Twenty-four percent of the pages were necessary and required a response within one hour. Sixteen percent of pages resulted in a change in patient care or were clinically indicated but could have been postponed for more than an hour. Another 26% neither resulted in a change nor were necessary clinically.

Based on the findings, the researchers estimated that reducing the number of unnecessary pages and postponing non-urgent ones could result in as much as a 42% decrease in disruptions of patient care and more rest for interns.