Well, to be honest, probably patients deep down resent anything other than the doctor picking up the phone him/herself, but they do understand the necessity. Our perception is they will resent a real person less, especially one they already know. Our MA's hated the phone because it was a task that constantly interrupted their other tasks. We do have their buy-in for this experiment mainly to eliminate that factor. Our MA's are reasonably empowered to make things happen (like short refills of antihypertensives pending an appointment), so for many calls the issue can be fixed, not just recorded. We'll see how it goes.
