How may I help you? This is a question heard dozens of times a day at Baptist Health Line as nurses field telephone calls from those with medical questions. Many times the nurses are the callers’ first contact with Western Baptist Hospital.

Baptist Health Line is Western Baptist Hospital’s Medical Call Center. It is staffed by ten RN’s with a variety of nursing backgrounds. The nurses answer questions about newborns, about trauma, illness, chest pain and the elderly. They answer questions about health matters in the news and new procedures Western Baptist Hospital is introducing. Additionally, they register callers for all the Maternal Child Services classes as well as the Heart Failure classes.

The call center is available to everyone in the community. Our number (575-2918) is in the telephone book and we are regularly listed in various communication outlets. If someone calls the general hospital number and asks to speak to a nurse, the call is transferred to us. If someone calls the Emergency Room with a question, the call is forwarded to us. One nurse may talk to a new mom on the Storkline (a twenty-four hour/ seven day telephone number for peri-natal calls) while another answers the Chest Pain Hotline.

Nurses call back all patients having had procedures at both the Out Patient Center and Center for Digestive Health. Cardiac catheterization arteriogram patients and those who have undergone open heart procedures receive a follow-up phone call, as well as all Maternal Child Services patients. One of our most important call back campaigns is following all patients who are admitted with a primary diagnosis of heart failure for a period of three months, in an attempt to reduce readmission rates for this patient population.

In fiscal year 2005, the nurses at Baptist Health Line either answered or placed more than 78,000 calls. That number alone speaks volumes as to the presence Baptist Health Line has within the community and region.

 Call Baptist Health Line at 270-575-2918, the Storkline at 270-575-BABY (2229) or the Chest Pain Hotline at 800-575-2911.