Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Consultations in Patients Hospitalized in a University Hospital

Aim This study was designed to overview our limitations, the point of view of other clinical disciplines about our department, and to outline the sphere of our interests by analysing the consultation data requested from the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM& R) for patients hospitalized in other departments. Material and Methods This trial was performed using the data of consultations made by our PM& R department in patients hospitalized in other clinical departments between December 2007 and December 2008. The department which requested the consultation, the reason for the consultation request, the diagnosis made and the treatment recommended by our PM& R Department were all recorded. The results were given in the number of patients and percentages. Results A total of 373 consultations were requested by 17 different departments (186 females and 187 males) throughout the study. The most common diagnoses made by our department were neurological and rheumatological diseases. Conclusions The results of our study suggest that our department is primarily regarded as a rehabilitation unit, while it is also known as a therapeutic clinic, particularly for rheumatological diseases, which we mainly attribute to the presence of a rheumatology division in our department. In the light of our findings, we concluded that diagnosis and therapy of rheumatological diseases should be particularly included in the educational programs of PM& R residents.