call

What does it mean to be "on call" as a primary care NP? When I think of after-hours primary care complaints, I imagine patients going to an urgent care or ER. This is not always the case?

Thanks!

Usually call in primary care is home call. This is mostly triage. PTs will call with symptoms. You either direct them to come in the next day or send them to the ER. There are also questions about test results and medications. Then there are the "my dog ate my Vicodin" calls.

For primary care the call is going to depend on the patient population and the number of patients the practice has. A large practice can generate 20-30 calls per night. Or if the patient population is well trained and relatively educated it may be 0-3 or so. Don't underestimate the cost of broken sleep when figuring call compensation. I work in a service where we are an admitting service. The fellow takes all the inpatient calls from the resident, but I take all the outpatient calls. So if you get a call at midnight with a patient with fever it means you are up all night. Direct PT to ER, get a call from ER an hour later that the patient is there, get results an hour or two later, set up the admission with the intern. It only happens every 3rd night or so but its kind of like water torture.

David Carpenter, PA-C