Efficacy of a "contact center based communication" in optimizing the care of inflammatory bowel diseases.
BACKGROUND Telephone helplines are a useful vehicle for the management of chronic diseases even though data on how these can ease management of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is still scarce. AIM to analyze our two years' experience with the first telephone helpline dedicated to IBD in Italy. METHODS The main outcomes of using a contact center (CC) at our Unit were analyzed; all data was prospectively collected. Patients' requests were classified into medical or non medical. The percentage of hospitalized patients in the pre CC period was compared to that after CC activation, to assess the potential clinical gain of using CC. The calls were divided into 5 categories to evaluate a potential correlation between patients' number of calls and risk of hospitalization. RESULTS The CC received 11,080 calls and handled 11,972 requests. In particular, 63% of patients phoned monthly for a medical consultation, and 37% called for non medical reasons. In 2012, the followed up patients were 1658 with 230 IBD caused hospitalizations (14% in 2014, the followed up patients were 1962 with 182 hospitalizations (9% (p<0.01) The risk of hospitalization exponentially increased with the number of calls: from 3% for 0 5 calls to 41% with >30 calls (p<0.01) CONCLUSION A dedicated CC could provide additional clinical gain, care, and support for IBD patients.
Digestive and liver disease official journal of the Italian Society of Gastroenterology and the Italian Association for the Study of the Liver