A Contemporary View of Psychiatry Services in a General Medical Hospital

Abstract

Objective: To describe the nature of psychiatry work within a general medical hospital and to compare and contrast the nature of that work between emergency department and inpatient settings.

Method: The data from the Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH) consultationliaison service database relating to referral, patient demographics, psychiatric diagnosis service use, management and discharge arrangements was recorded for all referrals to the RMH C-L service in 1999. The inpatient and emergency department arms of the service were compared.

Results: The referral rate for inpatients and the emergency department was 2.9% and 2.1% respectively. The reasons for referral and frequency of psychiatric diagnosis differed significantly between the two settings.

Conclusions: The provision of C-L services to inpatients and the emergency department needs to be tailored to the different patient populations.