Health Care Provider Satisfaction with Telephone Consultations Provided by Pharmacists and Physicians at the National HIV/AIDS Clinicians’ Consultation Center

Abstract

Spanish

French

Background:

The federally funded National HIV/AIDS Clinicians’ Consultation Center (NCCC) offers US health care providers expert telephone consultations for managing HIV/AIDS and occupational exposures to blood-borne pathogens through 3 telephone services: the National Clinicians’ Post-Exposure Prophylaxis Hotline (PEPline), the National HIV Telephone Consultation Service (Warmline), and the Perinatal HIV Hotline. Callers to the NCCC receive consultation from either a clinical pharmacist (PharmD) or a physician (MD) with HIV expertise.

Objective:

To compare the satisfaction of NCCC callers who received clinical consultations from clinical pharmacists and physicians with HIV expertise.

Methods:

We prospectively mailed 1256 satisfaction surveys to NCCC health care provider callers during a 7-month period. Survey recipients were not aware that satisfaction surveys compared PharmD and MD consultation services. Respondents rated their level of agreement with 8 statements about the quality of consultation, the quality of clinical information given, and future calls to the NCCC.

Results:

Survey return rates were 43% for PEPline and 40% for Warmline and Perinatal HIV Hotline combined. Overall, caller satisfaction with the telephone consultation service was extremely high (>4 in all categories on a 1–5 Likert scale). There was no significant difference in PEPline caller satisfaction ratings between PharmD and MD consultations. Callers to the Warmline and Perinatal HIV Hotline agreed with all 8 satisfaction statements. For the following 3 statements, however, satisfaction was higher when Warmline and Perinatal HIV Hotline consultation was provided by an MD: “Overall, I was pleased with the quality of my consultation” (p = 0.04); “I would use this service again” (p < 0.02); and “I am likely to recommend this service to my colleagues” (p = 0.02).

Conclusions:

Health care provider callers to the NCCC were highly satisfied with the information obtained from this HIV/AIDS telephone consultation service. By measuring callers’ survey response to PharmD and MD consultations, the importance of the clinicians’ contributions to this advanced HIV/AIDS consultation service is documented.

Keywords

health care professionals HIV education pharmacy service satisfaction telephone consultation

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

National HIV/AIDS clinicians’ consultation center. http://www.nccc.ucsf.edu (accessed 2011 Aug 5).

Bertsche

, Hammerlein

, Schulz

. German national drug information service: user satisfaction and potential positive patient outcomes. Pharm World Sci 2007; 29:167–72.DOI 10.1007/s11096-006-9041-7

Cameron

, Cheu

, Green

. Client satisfaction with the New Zealand national poisons information service. Vet Human Toxicol 1998; 40:163–5.

Dominguez

, Gupchup

, Benson

. A survey of the expectations of New Mexico emergency physicians regarding the services of the New Mexico poison and drug information center. Clin Toxicol 2000; 38:309–19.

McEntee

, Henderson

, Rutter

, Davis

. Utility and value of a medicines information service provided by pharmacists: a survey of health professionals. Int J Pharm Pract 2010; 18:353–61. DOI 10.1111/j.2042–7174.2010.00068.x

Melnyk

, Shevchuk

, Remillard

. Impact of the dial access drug information service on patient outcome. Ann Pharmacother 2000; 34:585–92. DOI 10.1345/aph.19173

Department of Health and Human Services, Panel on Antiretroviral Guidelines for Adults and Adolescents. Guidelines for the use of antiretroviral agents in HIV-1 infected adults and adolescents. January 10, 2011. http://aidsinfo.nih.gov/ContentFiles/AdultandAdolescentGL.pdf (accessed 2011 Aug 5).

Panlilio

, Cardo

, Grohskopf

, Heneine

, Ross

. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Updated US Public Health Service guidelines for the management of occupational exposures to HIV and recommendations for post-exposure prophylaxis. MMWR Recomm Rep 2005; 54(No.RR-9):1–17.

US Public Health Service. Updated US Public Health Service guidelines for the management of occupational exposures to HBV, HCV, and HIV and recommendations for postexposure prophylaxis. MMWR Recomm Rep 2001; 50(No. RR-11): 1–52.

10.

Smith

, Grohskopf

, Black

; US Dept of Health and Human Services. Antiretroviral postexposure prophylaxis after sexual, injection-drug use, or other nonoccupational exposure to HIV in the United States: recommendations from the US Department of Health and Human Services. MMWR Recomm Rep 2005; 54(No. RR-2):1–20.