The value of consultation-liaison interventions to the general hospital.
Changes in health care funding have greatly enhanced the value of consultation-liaison services to their parent hospitals. This paper reviews representative studies showing that consultation-liaison interventions improve patient care, enhance patients' satisfaction with treatment, and reduce polypharmacy, adverse drug reactions, and subsequent hospitalizations. Reductions in costs of hospitalization realized by consultation-liaison interventions are also described, including average reductions in hospital stays of one to one and a half days, upgrades in diagnosis-related group (DRG) codes, and timely patient transfers to inpatient medical-psychiatric units or inpatient psychiatric facilities. These data suggest that consultation-liaison services will become increasingly important over the next few years.
Hall
R C
RC
Florida Hospital Center for Psychiatry, Orlando 32803, USA.
Frankel
B L
BL
D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D003953:Diagnosis-Related Groups; D006769:Hospitals, General / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000191:economics / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000191:economics*; D010359:Patient Readmission / Q000191:economics*; D010360:Patient Transfer / Q000191:economics; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000191:economics*; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000191:economics*; D016896:Treatment Outcome