Definitions of Internal Medicine activities outside of the im department

The inpatient profile is changing towards patients with multiple diseases, the elderly and those with high comorbidity. The growing complexity of their care, the progressive medical superspecialization and the organizational problems that often hinder daily patient follow-up by the same physician have contributed to a progressive increase in the participation of medical departments, especially Internal Medicine, in the care of patients hospitalized in other medical and surgical specialties. The hospital activities that the departments of internal medicine perform outside of their own department do not have well-established definitions and criteria at the organizational level; their assessment and accountability are different in each hospital. In this document, we establish the definitions for shared care, advisory medicine, perioperative medicine and interconsultation, as well as their types in terms of priority, formality, care setting, timeliness, relationship with surgery and other circumstances.