Inpatient dermatology consultation in a Spanish tertiary care hospital: a prospective cohort study.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Although dermatology has traditionally been practiced through outpatient consultation, hospitalized patients often have dermatologic problems. The aim of this study was to describe and quantify the volume of interdepartmental consultation of the dermatology department of Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In this year-long prospective observational cohort study of 429 patients we used a specific data collection form to record information on consultations for patients admitted between July 2010 and June 2011. RESULTS: The 429 consultations over the 12 months of study accounted for 1.56% of all first consultations with a dermatologist during the period. A mean of 1.75 new patients were attended each day. The mean (SD) age of the patients was 52.63 (19) years, and the ratio of men to women was 1.21. Immunocompromised patients accounted for more than a third of the cohort. The medical specialties consulting most often were internal medicine (n=115) and hematology (n=66). The most frequent diagnoses were inflammatory skin conditions (36.2%) and infectious skin diseases (26.5%). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: To date, the role of interdepartmental consultation in dermatology has been little studied. Our results suggest that dermatology plays a fundamental role within the hospital. We have identified the most common skin problems in hospitalized patients and their clinical course.