TY - JOUR T1 - OUtcomes and processes of care related to
preoperative medical consultation AU - Wijeysundera DN AU -
Austin PC AU - Beattie W AU - Hux JE AU - Laupacis A Y1 -
2010/08/09 N1 - 10.1001/archinternmed.2010.204 JO - Archives of
Internal Medicine SP - 1365 EP - 1374 VL - 170 IS - 15 N2 -
Background  Preoperative consultations by internal medicine
physicians facilitate documentation of comorbid disease,
optimization of medical conditions, risk stratification, and
initiation of interventions intended to reduce risk.
Nonetheless, the impact of these consultations, which may be
performed by general internists or specialists, on outcomes is
unclear.Methods  We used population-based administrative
databases to conduct a cohort study of patients 40 years or
older who underwent major elective noncardiac surgery in
Ontario, Canada, between 1994 and 2004. Propensity scores were
used to assemble a matched-pairs cohort that reduced differences
between patients who did and did not undergo preoperative
consultati