• Vania Valenzuela, Mauricio Soto, Irina Betti, Daniel Jara, Constanza Valdebenito, Eduardo Arenas, Alejandra Angelats, and Álvaro Téllez.
• Departamento de Medicina Familiar, Escuela de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
• Rev Med Chil. 2022 Mar 1; 150 (3): 302-308.

BackgroundDuring sanitary emergencies such as the recent pandemic, health services can collapse. In these cases, remote orientation services such as call centers may help to debottleneck these services.AimTo assess the demand and problem resolution of a clinical guidance telephone service during the COVID-19 pandemic.Material And MethodsThe call registry between May and August 2020 of an orientation call center for COVID-19 was analyzed. The number of calls, sociodemographic features of callers, type of enquiry and given indications were described.ResultsWe analyzed 1,278 telephone calls, corresponding to 655 people. Sixty nine percent of queries were resolved during the call and in 31% of calls, users were referred to face-to-face evaluation. Two percent of these referrals were to an emergency service.ConclusionsThe call center had a high level of resolution, favoring remote consultation and reducing face-to-face care, improving users'accessibility.

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