Inpatient dermatology consultations: Motivation and practice of requesting providers

To the Editor: Given limited access to inpatient dermatology services, inpatient dermatologic management is handled by primary teams.1-4 These teams (eg, medicine, intensive care services, surgery) must decide when it is necessary to request dermatologic expert opinion, though many hospitals lack access to inpatient dermatology consults.4 When available, the decision to call a consult is unique and complex, shaped by patient-driven and provider-driven factors. Our aim was to survey inpatient providers prospectively to capture the factors that inform their decision to request dermatology consults and to characterize the perceived utility of the inpatient consult service.