Analysis of patients shared in consultations of internal medicine and other medical specialties

A Jiménez-Puente; M D Martín-Escalante; F Martos-Pérez; J García-Alegría

doi:10.1016/j.rce.2019.03.005

Analysis of patients shared in consultations of internal medicine and other medical specialties

Rev Clin Esp (Barc). 2019 Dec;219(9):485-489. doi: 10.1016/j.rce.2019.03.005. Epub 2019 Apr 20.

[Article in English, Spanish]

Authors

A Jiménez-Puente¹, M D Martín-Escalante², F Martos-Pérez³, J García-Alegría⁴

Affiliations

¹ Unidad de Evaluación, Agencia Sanitaria Costa del Sol, Marbella, Málaga, España; Red de Investigación en Servicios de Salud en Enfermedades Crónicas (REDISSEC). Electronic address: ajpuente@hcs.es.
² Área de Medicina, Agencia Sanitaria Costa del Sol, Marbella, Málaga, España.
³ Área de Medicina, Agencia Sanitaria Costa del Sol, Marbella, Málaga, España; Líneas de Procesos Asistenciales, Agencia Sanitaria Costa del Sol, Marbella, Málaga, España.
⁴ Área de Medicina, Agencia Sanitaria Costa del Sol, Marbella, Málaga, España; Red de Investigación en Servicios de Salud en Enfermedades Crónicas (REDISSEC).

PMID: 31014570
DOI: 10.1016/j.rce.2019.03.005

Abstract

Background and objective: The aging population is resulting in an increasing number of patients with multiple diseases that require treatment by various specialties. We examined the evolution of consultations and of the percentage of patients treated by several medical specialties.

Methods: We analysed internal medicine (IM) consultations and those of other medical specialties in a hospital during 1997, 2007 and 2017 for the general population and for those older than 65 years.

Results: Over the course of 20 years, the rate of first IM consultations per 1000 inhabitants increased 44%, and that of other medical specialties increased 137%. The percentage of patients seen by more than one specialty went from 13.8% in 1997 to 32.6% in 2017 and reached 45.5% for those older than 65 years.

Conclusions: The care for populations with growing comorbidity has a major impact on health systems and requires organisational changes for their care.

Keywords: Chronic diseases; Consultas externas; Enfermedades crónicas; Healthcare models; Internal medicine; Medicina interna; Modelos asistenciales; Outpatient clinics; Pluripatología; Polypathology.