Aim: The aim of this research is to examine the viewpoints of the primary healthcare workers in Turkey regarding directing the patients to the emergency service by providing them with telephone consultancy (TC).
Methods: In this Cross sectional study, the universe of the research is composed of the primary healthcare workers in Turkey. The online questionnaire technique was used to obtain the data. SPSS 15.0 statistical package was used in data analysis and p< 0.05 is considered significant.
Results: 1083 healthcare worker participated in the study. The proposal of "I support the TC project" is a statistically significant difference in terms of profession; and it was found out that family health employees looked more positively at this project than the doctors (p=0,028). The total proportion of the health professionals supporting the project was found out to be as low as 17.4%. A statistically significant difference was determined between ages (p=0,005), gender (p=0,005), profession (p=0,000) and years of professional experience (p=0,000) with the proposal of TC is a populist approach. The proposal of "TC service reduces the intensity in the emergency service" in term of profession, the statistical difference was found significant (p=0,023). Compared with family health employees; it was determined that the physicians did not think TC would reduce urgent applications.
Conclusion: In Turkey, the primary healthcare workers mostly oppose the TC issue. As the professional experience increase, this rate increases much more.
Key words: Telephone Consultancy, Family Medicine, Emergency service, Turkey Article Language: Turkish English
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