Resident-attending-professor Rounds of Consultation-liaison Psychiatry Service to Provide the Hospitalized Care of Psychiatric Comorbidities of General Hospital Inpatients

Abstract

There is a high prevalence of psychiatric comorbidity in general hospital inpatients of various physical departments. Psychiatric comorbidity may result in the difficulty in clinical communication, longer hospitalization, worse clinical outcomes and higher costs. However, psychiatric comorbidities are often neglected and left untreated. We believe this phenomenon is caused by complex problems including, but not limited to, insufficient recognition, insufficient invitation for consultation, clinical challenge of complex multiple-comorbidi-ties, and insufficient treatment. To address these problems, we developed consultation-liaison psychiatry system of resident-attending-professor rounds with fixed follow-ups to provide standardized care to general hospital inpatients with psychiatric comorbidity.

Keywords

• consultation-liaison psychiatry
• general hospital
• mental disorder
• psychiatric comorbidity