Ophthalmology inpatient consultation: does it make a difference to inpatient management?

Ophthalmology consultation is one of the commonest requested services for inpatients in a tertiary hospital. A total of 290 ophthalmology consultation requests were received over a period of six months (average 12 consultation requests per week) and from these, 222 patients were examined. The patient demographics, the hospitalization data, type of consultations (screening, new problem, preexisting problem), reasons for consultations and the ophthalmology diagnosis were determined. Out of 290 consultation requests, internal medicine services requested the highest number (95, 32.8%); the commonest type of consultation was screening for eye diseases (161, 55.5%) and the most common reason for consultation was to rule out diabetic retinopathy (125, 43.1%). The top five ophthalmology diagnoses after examination were diabetic retinopathy (45, 20.3%), diabetic retinopathy ruled out (37, 16.6%), conjunctivitis (12, 5.4%), refractive error (11, 4.8%) and normal ocular examination (11, 4.9%). Inpatient ophthalmologic procedures were performed in 146 patients, the commonest of which was retinal laser photocoagulation. A total of 133 (59.9%) inpatients had a change in their management as a result of the ophthalmology consultation.