MEDICAL CLEARANCE - FACT OR FICTION IN THE HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM

Prior medical clearance is an important variable in the psychiatric assessment of the emergency room patient. An analysis of documentation of prior physical examinations on a consecutive series of 137 patients seen in a general hospital emergency room and referred for psychiatric consultation revealed wide variance in physical examinations. The authors discuss the implications of incomplete physical examinations for psychiatry and offer proposals for standardization of this important aspect of patient evaluation. © 2011, The Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine. All rights reserved.