Inpatient dermatology: pattern of admissions and patients' characteristics in an Australian hospital.

Objective: To report the pattern of dermatology admissions and inpatient characteristics at a tertiary Australian hospital and compare the data with international studies.

Methods: The study was conducted at a tertiary referral hospital in New South Wales, Australia. Clinical databases were searched retrospectively to include all inpatient admissions under dermatology from 1 January to 31 December 2011. The medical records were reviewed to gather data on age, sex, ethnicity, length of stay, referral and follow-up source, diagnosis and other consultations obtained during the admission.

Results: In all, 97 patients were admitted during the 12-month period, of whom 44% were female and 56% male. The most frequent reasons for admission were dermatitis or eczema and ulcers. The average length of stay was 10 days, with a median of 5 days. A total of 80% of patients had a stay duration of 10 days or less, and 6% were in hospital for more than 30 days. The diagnosis that accounted for the longest length of stay was ulcers. A large proportion of patients required consultation from another medical specialty during their admission with 91 specialist consultations taking place for the study group.

Conclusions: Inpatient treatment plays a fundamental role in the management of complex and severe dermatological disease and comparison of these results to future studies in other dermatology units around Australia and internationally may be a valuable area of further work.