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Prospective evaluation of internal hospital requests for consultation of an Otolaryngology department

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 March 2006

Carmen de Casso
Affiliation:
Department of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester, UK
Fernando Rapado
Affiliation:
Department of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, Blackburn Royal Infirmary, Blackburn, UK
Andrew Zarod
Affiliation:
Department of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, North ManchesterGeneral Hospital, Crumpsall, Manchester, UK

Abstract

This was a prospective study and analysis of the clinical nature and severity of consultation, patient age and sex, place of consultation, grade of attending doctor and management strategy of in-patients referred for a specialist opinion to a Department of Otolaryngology.

Internal requests for consultation were evaluated at the North Manchester General Hospital between October 1999 and August 2000 (n=101).

Patients referred to the Otolaryngology department were of a varied clinical nature with head and neck complaints being the largest group. Forty-six of the patients had minor complaints.Patients were found to be predominantly male and older than 50 years of age. The grade of attending doctor was predominantly a Specialist Registrar and the management strategy was most frequently conservative.

Many of the requests for consultation were regarding minor problems that could be referred to a routine out-patient clinic. There is a need to improve the indication criteria for internalconsultation, as well as the information provided in them.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© Royal Society of Medicine Press Limited 2003

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