SEMI survey on the organization and activity in consultation/referral and comanagement

Abstract

Background: Currently, there is a lack of information about the activity carried out through consultations or referrals (IC), and even less about comanagement (AC). The Grupo de Trabajo de Asistencia Compartida y Medicina Hospitalista considered update the main organizational characteristics of CI and AC activities in the national territory.
Material and methods: During the months of January and February 2020, SEMI members, regardless of their position, were invited to participate in an anonymous telematic survey to study the CI and AC activity of the internal medicine (IM) departments. A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out.
Results: A total of 107 hospitals participated in the survey. Shared care (AC) is provided in 75% of the centers, median of services attended with AC per hospital were 2 (0-13). Hip fracture care units predominate. Median number of staff in the IM departments were 13 (2-50), being full-time in IC/AC in 26% of them, developing the activity of IC/AC on a fixed basis in 50% of the cases. The range of patients treated in IC/AC was very wide (0-3500), with a median of 300. 42.4% of the IC/AC units have medical training.
Conclusions: There has been a strong growth of CI/AC units in recent years, with dedicated full-time members and with a growing teaching weight. There is still a lack of knowledge of the basic concepts of CI/AC.