Pediatric Consultation-Liaison

In the course of your consultations you will evaluate and provide short-term treatment for patients of all ages, from infants to adults, with diverse socioeconomic, cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

You will spend most of your time assessing patients and providing short-term individual and family interventions while patients remain in the hospital.

You also will work with emergency psychiatry, including assisting with acutely and seriously emotionally disturbed children in the emergency department and on the floors.

You will assist the primary attending medical/surgical team in constructing appropriate discharge plans and collaborate with community mental health professionals to provide linkage and referral for patients you have evaluated. This gives you frequent contact with social services and occasional contact with the legal system.

The vast majority of your consultations will be for children younger than 18.

You will also see some adults, mostly obstetric patients, and some chronically ill young adults who have received ongoing care at Women and Children’s Hospital of Buffalo for conditions such as sickle cell anemia or cystic fibrosis. Obstetric consultations are usually requested because of anxiety, depression or, rarely, psychosis. Maternal patients may also have questions about the adequacy of parenting or the need for Child Protective Services.

Common diagnoses include mood disorders, anxiety disorders, psychotic disorders, substance-related disorders, feeding/eating disorders, somatoform and factitious disorders, and sleep disorders.

You will treat patients with psychopharmacology, behavior management, supportive and cognitive-behavioral individual therapies, and family therapy.

In your second year, you may teach and provide backup coverage to first-year residents, pediatric residents and medical students assigned to the service.

You will perform two consults per day on average for a total of approximately 70 to 80 new consultations over the course of the rotation. Most cases require ongoing follow-up, giving you an active caseload of three to five patients at a time.

• Required for first-year fellows
• Second-year fellows provide backup coverage
  
• Length: four months

Pediatric Consultation-Liaison Program at
Oishei Children’s Hospital
818 Ellicott Street
Buffalo, NY 14203
Phone: (716) 887-5800

Beth Smith, MD

• two child/adolescent psychiatrists
• one psychologist
  

• 75 percent younger than 18