Ophthalmology consultations at a large teaching hospital.

We reviewed 100 consecutive ophthalmology consultations performed on inpatients at a large teaching hospital to help identify areas that may require greater emphasis in the medical school and housestaff curriculum. Nonophthalmologists rarely record visual acuities or perform dilated fundus examinations. If visual acuity determination were more consistently made a part of routine physical examinations, it is possible that more pathology would be detected and non-productive consultations could be minimized. We plan to emphasize these observations in our school's curriculum more than in the past.