[Quick diagnostic and therapeutic assistance unit: activity and impact on relationship between internal medicine and general practitioners]

Introduction: General practitioners report difficulties to work efficiently with hospital physicians. We created a phone number dedicated to general practitioners to contact directly a hospital physician in the general internal medicine department entitled "quick diagnostic and therapeutic assistance". The aim of this study was to assess the first year activity of this professional support and its impact on general practitioners.

Results: We received 663 phone calls from February 2005 to February 2006. This led to a simple medical advice (41%), and immediate (26%) or delayed (32%) consultation or admission. Results of the mail survey showed that this "quick diagnostic and therapeutic assistance" was helpful for the general practioners.

Conclusion: Quick diagnostic and therapeutic assistance improve the quality of clinical care through better continuity of care between the public hospital and the general practitioners.