Texting Doctors Turn Off Pagers

A small survey of hospital pediatricians indicated that physicians increasingly are communicating with one another via texts, which is slowly forcing traditional pagers to the wayside.

Researchers at the University of Kansas School of Medicine conducted the survey, which was released Oct. 21 at the American Academy of Pediatrics national conference in New Orleans. Of 106 pediatricians who responded to the survey, 57 percent said they either send or receive work-related text messages, with 12 percent saying they do so more than 10 times per shift. In addition, 49 percent said they receive work-related text messages during their off hours. Most of those messages (59 percent) come from other hospital pediatricians; 34 percent are from hospital fellows or residents; and 25 percent are from consulting physicians or subspecialists. Face-to-face discussions and phone conversations still trump texting as the most frequent methods of communication, according to the study. But if the communication is to be brief, 27 percent said they prefer texts, compared with pagers (23 percent) or face-to-face discussions (21 percent).