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Infectious disease services: a survey from four university hospitals in Germany

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Abstract

Purpose

Involvement of infectious disease (ID) specialists in the care of hospitalized patients with infections through consultation services improves the quality of care and the outcome of patients. This survey aimed to describe activities and utilization of ID consultations at four German tertiary care hospitals.

Methods

A 1-month (March 2016) retrospective cross-sectional study at four university hospitals (Freiburg, Jena, Cologne and Regensburg) was performed. Only ID consultations with written documentation and bedside patient evaluation were included. Consultations were analyzed with regard to requesting departments, infections, case severity, and diagnostic and therapeutic recommendations.

Results

In the study period, 638 ID consultations were performed in 479 patients—corresponding to 3–4 consultations per 100 inpatient cases. Patients were characterized by a high disease complexity—the mean case mix index in patients with consultation was 10.1 compared to 1.6 for all patients. ID consultations were requested by many different specialties, with approximately half of the requests coming from surgical disciplines. ID consultations resulted in revised diagnoses in 34% of the cases, provided recommendations for additional diagnostic procedures in 66%, and for modifications of antimicrobial regimens in 70% of the cases.

Conclusions

Infectious disease consultations were requested for patients with severe and complicated diseases and resulted in recommendations that highly impacted the diagnostic work-up and therapeutic management of patients. The results of this survey may help to estimate requirements for establishment of such services in Germany.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine II, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Hugstetter Straße 55, 79106, Freiburg, Germany

    Siegbert Rieg & Winfried V. Kern

  2. Infectious Diseases Unit, University Hospital of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany

    Florian Hitzenbichler & Bernd Salzberger

  3. Infectious Disease, University Hospital of Jena, Jena, Germany

    Stefan Hagel & Mathias Pletz

  4. Department I of Internal Medicine, University Hospital of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    Isabelle Suarez, Florian Kron, Gerd Fätkenheuer & Norma Jung

  5. German Center for Infection Research, Partner Site Bonn-Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    Isabelle Suarez & Gerd Fätkenheuer

Authors
  1. Siegbert Rieg
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  2. Florian Hitzenbichler
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  3. Stefan Hagel
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  4. Isabelle Suarez
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  5. Florian Kron
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  6. Bernd Salzberger
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  7. Mathias Pletz
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  8. Winfried V. Kern
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  9. Gerd Fätkenheuer
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  10. Norma Jung
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Siegbert Rieg.

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Rieg, S., Hitzenbichler, F., Hagel, S. et al. Infectious disease services: a survey from four university hospitals in Germany. Infection 47, 27–33 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s15010-018-1191-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s15010-018-1191-8

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