[Data respect--data discipline--data understanding].

Abstract

All hospitals are obliged to have an index of diagnoses made in the hospital. This file should be the basis for evaluation, planning and research. Our view is that such files are today incomplete and not very fit for above-mentioned purposes. The introduction of EDP in hospitals does not seem to have improved the situation very much. Therefore the hospitals should improve the professional responsibility for these files, in order to obtain complete and correct registration. Administrators and physicians in administrative positions must feel responsible for feed-back of patient data to the different departments for analysis, discussion and evaluation. This will hopefully increase the interest for data and registration, and supply a better medical basis for planning hospital activities.