Answering patients’ paging is a daily activity in patient care, one rarely identified and acknowledged. This can cause dissatisfaction on the part of patients and caregivers. A Quality Improvement Plan on paging was set up in an orthopedic ward to identify the reasons for paging, in order to anticipate requests and improve patients’ safety and comfort. The objective was to reduce the number of calls over a year by 25%, by setting up preventive actions. The study was renewed every year over a 14-day period, and was based on a participatory and declaratory procedure by caregivers and students. Answering calls was a frequent practice (five calls/hour), with nurse’s aides heavily involved (49%). Calls were most frequently related to elimination, comfort, pain and mobilization, in conformity to the needs of the treated population. Due to a change of practice in the unit, paging increased by 35% in 2006, especially concerning elimination (+62%). Answering patient’s paging is a quality marker which evaluates the needs of the patients and the practices of caregivers. Simple and costless preventive actions can be established. It is necessary to extend this indicator to the whole hospital, and to complete it through an evaluation of patient satisfaction.