Inpatient consultations with the vascular and endovascular surgery team at an academic tertiary hospital

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background Inpatient consultations are a fundamental component of practice in tertiary care centers. However, such consultations demand resources, generating a significant workload. Objectives To investigate the profile of inpatient consultations requested by other specialties and provided by the Vascular and Endovascular Surgery team at an academic tertiary hospital. Methods Prospective observational study. Results From May 2017 to May 2018, 223 consultations were provided, representing 2.2% of the workload. Most consultations were requested by Oncology (16.6%), Hematology (9.9%), Nephrology (9.0%), and Cardiology (6.3%). The leading reasons for inpatient consultation were: need for vascular access (51.1%) and requests to evaluate a vascular disease (48.9%). Acute venous diseases accounted for 19.3% of consultations, chronic arterial diseases for 14.8%, acute arterial diseases for 7.2%, diabetic feet for 5.4%, and chronic venous diseases accounted for 2.2%. Surgical treatment was performed in 57.0%, either conventional (43.9%) or endovascular (13.0%). Almost all (98.2%) patients’ issues were resolved. Conclusions Inpatient consultations with the Vascular and Endovascular Surgery team in a tertiary academic hospital accounted for 2.2% of the team’s entire workload. Most patients were elective and underwent low-complexity elective surgical procedures. There may be an opportunity to improve healthcare, redirecting these patients to the outpatient flow.