'COVID-19' pandemic through the prism of call center contacts

Abstract

Introduction. From March 14th to May 04th, 2022, there had been a call center in the Town Hall of Novog Sada (further call center). There were four general physicians (GPs) from Primary Healthcare Center "Novi Sad" on-call, and they gave information and answers to the questions asked by the citizens about the COVID-19 pandemic. Objective. We aimed at presenting the structure of the questions we asked on-call GPs in the call center. Method. Retrospective analysis of the phone calls, on one phone line, in one seven-hour shift, during 36 working days. Results and discussion: We analyzed 757 questions, classified into 14 call categories: 1. Fever and health issues that might be connected to COVID-19, 165 (21,80%). 2. Health issues not connected to COVID-19, 134 (17,70%). 3. Social problems that occurred after the going out ban for those over 65, and curfew, 68 (8,98%). 4. Isolation measures, 67 (8,85%). 5. Going to follow up health checks, 61 (8,06%). 6. Problems buying food and drugs, 46 (6,08%). 7. Going out ban, 44 (5,81%). 8. Buying and using PPE and disinfectants, 20 (2,64% ) 9. Testing, 12 (1,59%). 10. Going or rather not going to work, 11 (1,45%). 11. Psychological problems, 9 (1,19%). 12. Complaints of work organizations, 6 (0,79%). 13. Questions that couldn't be cataloged in any of the previously mentioned categories, 89 (11,76%). 14. Calls from other counties, 25 (3,30%), which was interesting. Conclusion: In the early phase of the pandemic on-call GPs helped citizens solve different problems, even non-health ones. They remained the first line of contact with the health system, showing that primary health care, as a part of the health system, is always available.

Keywords

• covid-19 pandemic
• call center
• organization
• primary healthcare