Quantifying consultations to medical specialties during psychiatric inpatient admissions in a Queensland tertiary hospital

Abstract

Objectives

To identify and characterise medical consultations to psychiatric inpatients.

Method

Retrospective cross-sectional descriptive study of 451 psychiatric inpatients’ electronic medical records between 1 January and 30 June 2021 with descriptive statistics.

Results

Thirty one percent (n = 131) of inpatients required medical consultation, with 382 total consultations including ward call. Half (57.9%) were telephone advice. Main consulting specialties were general medicine (25%), anaesthetics (12%), neurology (9.9%), cardiology (6.5%) and endocrinology (6.2%). Almost all (99.0%) consultations resulted in documented management plans.

Conclusions

This is the first Australian descriptive study quantifying and characterising psychiatric inpatient consultation requests. Physical and psychiatric healthcare integration requires ongoing efforts, including improved referral pathways.