Background: Inpatient dermatology is an important yet evolving field. There has been a linear decrease in the number of dermatologists providing inpatient care and in the number of medical centers with an inpatient dermatology service. Medical centers with inpatient dermatology services are unevenly distributed geographically, with most in larger metropolitan areas. There is still a great need for dermatologic expertise in the inpatient setting. We aim to examine the utility of the dermatologic consult service, including the most common chief complaints and conditions that prompted consultation over four months at Medical City Fort Worth.
Methods: This was a retrospective chart review study investigating consultations to the dermatology service at Medical City Fort Worth hospital between September 1, 2025, and January 8, 2026. Patient clinical diagnoses were reviewed.
Results: There were 27 dermatology consults. The internal medicine service requested all consultations. All consultations were done on admitted patients; however, three consults were seen in the ED. Of the 27 patient consultations, 13 (48%) were admitted for a primary dermatologic complaint. 19 patients had a biopsy performed (70%) for disease confirmation. 18 consults had a chief complaint of rashes (67%), followed by 5 for wounds (22%) and 3 for nonhealing lesions (11%). The most frequently diagnosed dermatologic conditions were infectious (22%) and inflammatory (22%), followed by malignancies (18%) and drug eruptions (14.8%).
Conclusions: Inpatient dermatology consultations are a valuable resource to the inpatient team, especially when the primary diagnosis is a dermatologic condition. Biopsies help confirm the diagnosis and management of dermatologic conditions presenting in the inpatient hospital setting.

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