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Ophthalmology inpatient consultations: an Irish tertiary hospital experience

Eye volume 38, pages 3519–3524 (2024)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background

Ophthalmology consultation on inpatients is often important to optimise eye care and provide information for referring teams. Inpatient consultation may constitute a not-insignificant workload however. This study reports on the nature and necessity of ophthalmology inpatient consults in a large Irish hospital.

Methods

Retrospective analysis of all consecutive ophthalmology inpatient consultations over a 12-month period.

Results

In total, 359 consult requests were received primarily from adult medicine (57.9%), surgery (22%) and paediatric teams (18.4%). The most common reasons for referral were loss of vision (23.7%); visual field testing (15%); diplopia or abnormal eye movements (11.4%); and screening for ocular features of systemic disease (10.6%). Presumptive diagnoses by referring teams were correct in 29.5% of cases. The majority had normal eye examinations (53.2%) or non-sight-threatening features (16.8%), while a minority had acute eye pathology (30%). Most patients (80.4%) required no intervention. A minority required medical (12.5%), orthoptic (4.6%) or surgical (2.4%) intervention. The majority of patients (81%) were fit for transfer to the eye clinic and did not require bedside examination.

Conclusions

Our study found a high proportion of ophthalmology inpatient consultations had normal eye exams and required no intervention. The quality of referrals was variable suggesting that clearer guidelines and more ophthalmology education is needed for referring teams.

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Data availability

The data that supports the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author (RM), upon reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ophthalmology Department, Cork University Hospital, Cork, Ireland

    Robert McGrath, Edward Ahern, Mark James, Zubair Idrees & Eamonn O’Connell

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  1. Robert McGrath
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  2. Edward Ahern
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  3. Mark James
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  5. Eamonn O’Connell
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Contributions

RM was responsible for data collection and writing the report. EA contributed to data collection. MJ, ZI and EoC contributed to reviewing and editing the report.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Robert McGrath.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Previously presented at Irish College of Ophthalmologists Annual Meeting 2022.

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McGrath, R., Ahern, E., James, M. et al. Ophthalmology inpatient consultations: an Irish tertiary hospital experience. Eye 38, 3519–3524 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41433-024-03354-0

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