BACKGROUND Primary care practices that concentrate linguistically and culturally appropriate services for Latinos may result in higher cardiology consultation rates and improved process measure performance for patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and congestive heart failure (CHF). METHODS Multivariable Cox proportional-hazards regression was used to assess differences in referral at h...

The Adelaide and Meath Hospital in Tallaght is the national referral centre for all pelvic and acetabular trauma in Ireland. Referrals were made by contacting the trauma registrar on call and forwarding a letter with a copy of the patient’s films (routinely by taxi) for review. Once the films were reviewed, a decision was made as to whether surgical intervention was necessary and if so, the p...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of timing of a psychiatry consultation during pediatric hospitalization on length of hospital stay and total hospitalization charges. METHODS The charts of 279 pediatric patients (totaling 308 consultations) referred to the psychiatry consultation liaison service at a freestanding tertiary pediatric hospital between January 1, 20...

BACKGROUND Patients admitted for resection of lung tumours frequently experience lengthy delays in diagnosis and preoperative investigations. This study was conducted to quantify this delay between presentation and definitive treatment and to assess the factors responsible for such a delay. METHODS All patients undergoing lung resection for a tumour at a single surgical unit in 1993 were stud...

BACKGROUND With the increasing popularity of chiropractic care in the United States, inter-professional relationships between conventional trained physicians (MDs and DOs) and chiropractors (DCs) will have an expanding impact on patient care. The objectives of this study are to describe the intra-professional referral patterns amongst DCs, describe the inter-professional referral patterns betwe...

OBJECTIVE To describe how pediatricians refer patients to specialists, including frequency of referral decisions, reasons for referral, and types of referrals. DESIGN We conducted a prospective study of visits (N = 58 771) made to 142 pediatricians in a national primary care practice-based research network. During 20 consecutive practice days, physicians and parents completed questionnaires f...

OBJECTIVE: In response to limitations in access to subspecialty care, I present personal observations and suggestions related to education of future pediatricians regarding development of critical thinking skills, care of complex and chronically ill patients, development of empathy, and restoration of responsibility that may help ameliorate this serious problem. Toward this end, I also offer 1 ...

OBJECTIVE To analyze the importance of symptoms as a reason for referral to pediatric cardiologists in the diagnosis of congenital heart diseases (CHD) in the newborn (NB). METHODS Prospective study on live NB referred for cardiac evaluation, with performance of electrocardiogram, chest radiography and echocardiography. Cardiology consultation was requested by means of a multiple-choice form ...

OBJECTIVE: In response to limitations in access to subspecialty care, I present personal observations and suggestions related to education of future pediatricians regarding development of critical thinking skills, care of complex and chronically ill patients, development of empathy, and restoration of responsibility that may help ameliorate this serious problem. Toward this end, I also offer 1 ...

Background Multidrug-resistant organism (MDRO) infections are associated with high mortality and readmission rates. Infectious diseases (ID) consultation improves clinical outcomes for drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections. Our goal was to determine the association between ID consultation and mortality following various MDRO infections. Methods This study was conducted w...