Don't hang up! That call could be from a relay user
Have you or someone on your staff received a call lately that sounded more like a telemarketer than a patient? It could have been a relay operator calling for a patient with a hearing or speech disability through your state's telephone-interpreter service.
With the system, a hearing- or speech-impaired person using a text telephone contacts a relay operator. The operator receives the strictly confidential messages typed verbatim from the caller. Then the operator tells the third party what the typist wrote. The telephone relay system is available 24 hours a day, every day.
Some users of the interpreter system, also known as relay, say 10 percent of the time the person receiving the call hangs up because he or she doesn't understand what's going on.
"I've had stories of people having to drive 30 miles to their physician to make an appointment because they couldn't get through with a telephone call," said Gary Smith, with the Better Business Bureau Consumer Education Foundation, Austin, Texas, who's working nationally to get the word out about relay systems.
Family physicians or their staffs interested in learning more about their state's relay service can call (800) 949-4232 or fax a request to (512) 445-2096. A request can also be e-mailed to gary7@ix.netcom.com.
FP Report is published by the AAFP News Department. Copyright © 1998 by American Academy of Family Physicians.