Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Observational Study
. 2018 Dec 19;18(1):983.
doi: 10.1186/s12913-018-3802-6.

Infectious disease consultations in a Japanese tertiary care teaching hospital: a retrospective review of 508 cases

Yoshiro Hadano  1   2 , Takanori Matsumoto  3
Affiliations
Observational Study

Infectious disease consultations in a Japanese tertiary care teaching hospital: a retrospective review of 508 cases

Yoshiro Hadano et al. BMC Health Serv Res. .

Abstract

Objective: Limited epidemiological data are available at tertiary care teaching hospitals in Japan. We reviewed infectious disease (ID) consultations in a tertiary acute care teaching hospital in Japan.

Methods: This is a retrospective review of the ID consultations from October 2016 to December 2017. The demographic data, such as requesting department, consultation wards, and final diagnosis, were analyzed.

Results: There were 508 ID consultations during the 15-month study period. Among the 508 consultations, 201 cases (39.6%) were requested from the internal medicine department and 307 cases (60.4%) were requested from departments other than internal medicine. The most frequent requesting departments were Surgery (n = 102, 20.1%), Pulmonary Medicine (n = 41, 8.1%), and Plastic Surgery (n = 35, 6.7%). The most common diagnoses were intra-abdominal (n = 81, 16.0%), respiratory (n = 62, 12.2%), and skin and soft tissue infections (n = 59, 11.6%). ID consultations for disease diagnosis and management were more frequent in the internal medicine group than in the non-internal medicine group (37 cases, 20.8% vs. 40 cases, 13.7%, p = 0.046), and the number of requests for consultations for noninfectious diseases at the time of final diagnosis was higher in the internal medicine group than in the non-internal medicine group (21 cases, 11.8% vs. 16 cases, 5.5%, p = 0.0153).

Conclusion: Some physicians prefer ID specialists to identify and solve various medical problems. Internists had a greater tendency to request consultations for diagnostic problems, and noninfectious disease specialists have more requests for consultation at the point of final diagnosis. The role of ID specialists is expanding, from individual patient management to antibiotic stewardship, antibiotic prophylaxis, and development of and adherence to antibiotic protocol implementation based on the hospital's microbial susceptibility and infection control. Although the number of specialists is limited in Japan, ID services now play an important role for achieving a good outcome in patient management.

Keywords: Consultation services; Infectious diseases; Japan; Surgery.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of St. Mary’s Hospital (No. 17–0201). The requirement to obtain written consent from all participants was waived by the IRB because of the study’s observational nature without any deviation from the current medical practice.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

References

    1. Iwata K. Quantitative and qualitative problems of infectious diseases fellowship in Japan. Int J Infect Dis. 2013;17:e1098–e1099. doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2013.07.009. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kawamura I, Kurai H. Inpatient infectious disease consultations requested by surgeons at a comprehensive cancer center. Support Care Cancer. 2015;23(10):3011–3014. doi: 10.1007/s00520-015-2669-x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Salerno SM, Hurst FP, Halvorson S, Mercado DL. Principles of effective consultation: an update for the 21st-century consultant. Arch Intern Med. 2007;167(3):271–275. doi: 10.1001/archinte.167.3.271. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Vehreschild JJ, Morgen G, Cornely OA, Hartmann P, Koch S, Kalka-Moll W, Wyen C, Vehreschild MJ, Lehmann C, Gillor D, Seifert H, Kremer G, Fätkenheuer G, Jung N. Evaluation of an infectious disease consultation programme in a German tertiary care hospital. Infection. 2013;41(6):1121–1128. doi: 10.1007/s15010-013-0512-1. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Yinnon AM. Whither infectious diseases consultations? Analysis of 14,005 consultations from a 5-year period. Clin Infect Dis. 2001;33(10):1661–1667. doi: 10.1086/323760. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances