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A conversation analytic study of calls to medical reception for doctor’s appointments

  • Ann Weatherall
    ,
  • Fiona Grattan
  • Victoria University of Wellington
Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Open access

Abstract

A call to medical reception is regularly an entry point into primary health care services. Telephone-mediated interactions between patients and receptionists have been found to temper demand for doctor’s appointments and influence patient satisfaction ratings; yet little is known about what exactly happens to produce those effects. The present study asks how medical receptionists respond to telephone-mediated appointment requests. Audio recordings of 18 calls between receptionists and patients at a New Zealand University health care practice were collected, transcribed and examined in detail using conversation analysis. The findings reveal the complexity of telephone-mediated medical receptionist work which involves multiple engagements involving the caller and the on-line booking systems. The work has clinical components and evidence was found of receptionists’ orientations to the potential urgency of callers’ problems and how a triaging process was initiated. Overall, this study shows medical receptionists do skilful communicative work granting patient requests or progressing relevant courses of action in a clinically responsible way, thus delivering a valuable and unrecognised aspect of health care delivery. Keywords: primary health care; social interaction; mediated communication; telephone triage; qualitative, gendered work

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output: Contribution to journal Article Peer-review

Original language

English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 1532-1542 (11 pages)

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

Health Communication (Volume 39, Issue 8)

Publication milestones

  • Accepted/In press - 03/06/2023
  • Published - 12/06/2023

Publication status

Published - 12/06/2023

ISSN

1041-0236

External Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/625904
  • Scopus: 85161869589

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