Why do we still page each other? Examining the frequency, types and senders of pages in academic medical services.

Paging remains widely used for communications within hospitals about patient care. Although the majority of pages were judged to be clinically relevant and important, they frequently required a response potentially leading to interruptions in workflow, and communication waste. Paging rate and volume has not decreased in 25 years despite significant penetration of newer technologies. For the majority of current uses of pages, we believe other approaches may now be more appropriate. Regionalisation significantly reduces the number and urgency of the pages.