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 hospitals transformed their delivery of services during the 1990s, we hypothesized that the day-to-day role of the consultation-liaison service would change in terms of the population served, timing of evaluations, and recommended interventions. Using a chart review, we retrospectively examined consultations referred to an adult consultation-liaison service at a university hospital 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 illness and to be more medically complicated. These findings have implications in the context of cost effective health care.