A contemporary view of psychiatry services in a general medical hospital.

Objective: To describe the nature of psychiatry work within a general medical hospital and to compare and contrast the nature of that work between emergency department and inpatient settings. Method: The data from the Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH) consultation-liaison service database relating to referral, patient demographics, psychiatric diagnosis service use, management and discharge arrangements was recorded for all referrals to the RMH C-L service in 1999. The inpatient and emergency department arms of the service were compared. Results: The referral rate for inpatients and the emergency department was 2.9% and 2.1% respectively. The reasons for referral and frequency of psychiatric diagnosis differed significantly between the two settings. Conclusions: The provision of C-L services to inpatients and the emergency department needs to be tailored to the different patient populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]