Psychological Consultation in a Children's Hospital: An Evaluation of Services

The pediatric psychologist's role in children's inpatient medicalhospitals has rapidly expanded. Few studies have examined thetypes of referrals for psychological consultation or programevaluation of these services. This paper describes an archivalevaluation of the types of referrals received by a pediatricpsychology inpatient service over a period of 4 1/2 years andan evaluation of these services by physicians, nurses, and socialworkers. The survey of services indicated that the most frequentreferrals were for depression/suicide attempt, poor adjustmentto a chronic illness, and behavior problems. Medically relatedproblems accounted for 42% of all of the consults. Approximatelytwo-thirds of the children were referred for outpatient psychologicalservices. The pediatric psychology service was more likely tofollow, on an outpatient basis, children with medically relatedproblems. A 26-item questionnaire obtained an overall responserate of 48% and response rate of 84 and 60% for faculty andresident physicians having contact with the pediatric psychologyconsult service. The evaluation of the pediatric psychologyservice by physicians, nurses, and social workers indicatedoverall satisfaction with the services they received. The levelof satisfaction was strongly related to the level of diagnosticagreement between the physicians/nurses and psychologist. Thelowest level of satisfaction was on verbal and written feedback.Suggestion for further research was offered.