| Summary: | The practice of dermatology remains to be one that mainly deals with outpatients, but the role dermatologic consultations also play in the care of inpatients should not be undermined. A few studies examined the significance of dermatologic consultations/referrals.
Methods: 25 cases, randomly chosen from recent referrals to the dermatology service at King Fahd Hospital of the University, a tertiary health facility, were studied to determine whether the referral was necessary.
Results: The primary reasons for referral were for reevaluation of diagnosis and therapy (44%), therapy (52%) and diagnosis only in 4% (Table 2). Most frequent requesting services were primary care (32%), general practitioners (28%) and nonspecialist dermatologists (25%). The details of the 25 cases are discussed. The differences between dermatologists vs. non-dermatologists, non-specialists in the evaluation of the individual cases are discussed (Table 1). In 88% of cases, additional testing and tissue confirmation were needed in the evaluation and confirmation of the referrals (Table 3).
Conclusion: Complicated cases and those not responding to therapies given by non-dermatologist practitioners or non-specialists need to have access to tertiary care specialists. Such referrals are of value; however our findings are not informative about quality of care of patients who were not referred.
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