Yale studies of patient care. I. The evaluation of the febrile patient.

Observations are reported on the variation in evaluation and management of 216 episodes of fever in 690 patients on four services of a university hospital. Twenty-two percent of febrile episodes were not commented upon in the medical record. Thirty percent of all fevers and 14% of antibiotic-treated fevers were not evaluated with microbiologic cultures. The extent of evaluation varied with service and varied directly with the height of the fever and the clinical recording of abnormality in temperature.