Changes in psychiatric consultations over ten years

We report on the day-to-day functions of a consultation-liaison psychiatric service during a two-month period separated by ten years. As general hospi tals transformed their delivery of services during the 1990s, we hypothesiz ed that the day-to-day role of the consultation-liaison service would chang e in terms of the population served, timing of evaluations, and recommended interventions. Using a chart review, we retrospectively examined consultat ions referred to an adult consultation-liaison service at a university hosp ital during the same two-months in 1990 (N=75) and 2000 (N=90). Patients in 2000 were less educated, more likely to be divorced and more likely to be minorities. The 2000 patients appeared to have more severe psychiatric illn ess and to be more medically complicated. These findings have implications in the context of cost effective health care. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc . All rights reserved.