BACKGROUND Patients scheduled for major elective noncardiac surgery frequently undergo preoperative medical consultations. However, the factors that determine whether individuals undergo consultation and the extent of interhospital variation remain unclear. METHODS The authors used population-based administrative databases to conduct a cohort study of patients, aged 40 yr or older, who underw...

BACKGROUND Curbside consultations are commonly requested during the care of hospitalized patients, but physicians perceive that the recommendations provided may be based on inaccurate or incomplete information. OBJECTIVE To compare the accuracy and completeness of the information received from providers requesting a curbside consultation of hospitalists with that obtained in a formal consulta...

In this research, we designed a three-stage consultation procedure and eight major consultation items in order to construct an integrated occupational health consultation model that emphasizes both inspection and consultation. The main characteristics of the proposed model include cooperation among governmental departments, combining non-governmental professional consulting organizations, and e...