HOSPITALS in general: admissibility in evidence of hospital records.
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Accurate health information is a key component in the development of health improvement strategies. This paper provides a discussion of the challenges in improving hospital information systems in relation to indigenous patients. Based on interviews with both staff and patients of a major city hospital complex, a picture emerges of the need for bottom-up approaches to understanding perceptions of identity. Indigenous patients were found to be generally comfortable about identifying themselves on hospital records (if asked), but were often not clear why such questions were asked. On the other hand hospital staff were often uncomfortable about asking and were equally not always clear why such information was needed. Issues of accurate hospital record administration are discussed in relation to the attitudes and perceptions of both staff and patients.
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The use and consequences of liberalized access to hospital records were evaluated in a prospective questionnaire study. The study was carried out in a branch-specialized somatic university hospital and covered the first 12 months after a statutory change. The patients who applied (or in some cases their relations) and the doctors involved completed separate questionnaires. One hundred and forty two admissions (0.4%) were associated with applications for access to hospital records. Younger patients (18-49 years) applied more often than elderly patients but no sex difference was found. Neonatal and gynecological diseases were associated with relatively high prevalences while tumours and medical diseases were associated with very low prevalences of application. All applications were accorded. The most common motive for application to see records was the wish for more information, and 3/4 of the applicants found the information sought. Access to hospital records was used by only two of 45 patients subsequently lodging complaints about examination or treatment. 96% of the applicants were satisfied with access to their records, and doctors did not consider access to be harmful in any case. The expenses involved were low.
Currently available computerized hospital records from four hospitals in Southwest Oregon were utilized for occupational health surveillance by administering brief occupational questionnaires to hospitalized male patients. Patients with occupational exposure to the lumber and wood products industries showed statistically significant increased risks of hospitalization for diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue. The technique of using routine hospital records for occupational health surveillance has utility as a simple, inexpensive, but systematic tool for monitoring occupational populations.
BACKGROUND: The accuracy of ethnicity information in the New Zealand hospital data was reported on in 1994. Data collected in the Barriers to Diabetes Care in the Waikato Study enables further evaluation of the accuracy of ethnicity information in hospital records. AIMS: One aim of public health policy is addressing health disparities between ethnic groups. Monitoring disparities depends on accurate outcome data, such as that from hospitals. It would be expected that this data would improve over time. This paper reports on the contemporary accuracy of ethnicity data in hospital records in the Waikato district. METHODS: Self-identified ethnicity data were gathered as part of the Barriers to Diabetes Care in the Waikato mail survey. Hospital record data were collected for those participants who had consented for access to their hospital records. RESULTS: Complete data was available for 3500 people with diabetes. Ethnicity in the hospital record was correct for one of the sometimes multiple, self-identified ethnicities for 97.7 (95CI 96.8-98.3)% of respondents. Ethnicity data were concordant for 71 (67-75)% of Maori and 99 (99-100)% of non-Maori. The non-Maori ethnic group was disaggregated into component groups: the hospital record agreed with self identified ethnicity for 89 (87-91)% of Europeans, 67 (55-78)% of Pacific groups, 70 (57-81)% of South Asian groups, 64 (48-77)% of Asian groups, and 41 (27-57)% of 'Other' ethnic groups. CONCLUSIONS: Hospital records continue to mis-record ethnicity when compared to a self-identified ethnicity. Mis-recording occurs for all ethnic groups, and is more pronounced at more specific levels of ethnic group. Researchers, clinicians, and policy makers must be cognisant of these continuing discrepancies when using hospital record data to describe ethnic variations in health status, service utilisation, or for policy planning activities.
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A 1993 study examined the association between pneumoconiosis and cor pulmonale using a computerized data base of hospital records in Ontario (Hospital Medical Records Institute, HMRI). The present investigation was undertaken to confirm the coding of the diagnoses of a subset of the hospital discharges from that study, to determine the validity of the coding of the diagnoses of coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP), and to identify work exposure (occupation and industry) information available in hospital records. We sent abstraction forms to hospitals for 521 subjects who were hospitalized for pneumoconiosis, cor pulmonale, or both conditions, requesting information regarding diagnoses, occupation and industry data, and X-ray results. Abstracts were received for 720 (76%) of 944 discharges that were sought. The hospital abstractions confirmed the HMRI coding for 90% of the charts with these conditions, including 63%, 97%, and 96% discharges for CWP, silicosis, and asbestosis, respectively. Specific dust exposures were indicated in 42% of the charts with a code indicating a diagnosis of CWP, and of these, 67% indicated exposure to coal dust. Of charts with a code indicating a diagnosis of silicosis, 73% with specific dust information indicated silica exposure, and 95% of those for asbestosis indicated exposure to asbestos. Of 34 individuals in this data set known from the Ministry of Labour's Chest Clinic X-ray Surveillance Program of miners to have silicosis, 33 (97%) were diagnosed by the hospitals as having pneumoconiosis, and all but two were silicosis. Hospital records, as reflected by HMRI data, are reliable indicators of cor pulmonale and pneumoconiosis. The agreement with the Chest Clinic's X-ray diagnoses provides additional objective confirmation of the accuracy of the hospital information. There were relatively few cases of silicosis miscoded as CWP. At least for pneumoconioses, hospital records contained information about the exposures that led to these diseases in approximately 50% of the cases. However, whether hospital records would prove useful for detecting other work-related conditions that are not pathognomonic of occupation is not known. The importance of taking occupational histories needs continued emphasis in medical education and training.
The study is one of the first to compare corresponding birth weights documented on New York City Health Department Vital Statistics (HDVS) birth tapes and the neonatal medical records of the hospital of birth. Only those infants with birth weights of 2,500 grams (g) or less were studied. Analyses were made of the scope, magnitude of error, and direction of the discrepancies observed. Concordance was considered present if the discrepancy in birth weight was 30 g or less. HDVS birth tapes and the hospital charts of 3,864 neonates were reviewed. The study population came from 48 of 53 hospitals in the metropolitan area. Hospitals were divided into three categories by the level of care offered. Each level of care was subdivided into groups by type of hospital ownership, that is, proprietary, voluntary, and municipal. Concordance was 87 percent overall and ranged from 67 to 96 percent among the study hospitals. More discrepancies were found for levels II and III hospitals than in level I hospitals, those with less sophisticated resources. Municipal hospitals had more discrepancies in birth weights than voluntary hospitals. Infants who had been transported from the birth facility to another facility had significantly higher concordance rates than the nontransported infants, after adjusting for levels of care, type of ownership of the hospital, and birth weight categories. Increased concordance rates were shown to be associated with increased birth weights.
OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to measure the agreement between hospital records and maternal reporting of mode of delivery in a representative UK sample. DESIGN: Population-based survey (Millennium Cohort Study). SETTING: UK. POPULATION: A total of 12,391 singleton infants born in 2000-2002. METHODS: Mothers were interviewed when infants were approximately 9 months old. Information was collected by interview on many obstetric and perinatal factors including mode of delivery. Record linkage to the mother's delivery hospital records was undertaken in those who gave consent (90%). A matching record was found for 83%. Maternal report and hospital records were compared using mode of delivery classified into three (normal, assisted and caesarean) and six groups. Factors associated with disagreement between the two data sources were identified. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Proportion of records in which there was agreement between the two data sources. RESULTS: Agreement between maternal report and hospital records was at least 94% using six mode of delivery groups and 98% using three groups. Much of the disagreement (57-63%, depending on country) was between forceps and ventouse, and between planned and emergency caesarean. Disagreement was more common in women whose babies were first born and in women not born in the UK. CONCLUSION: Our study confirms that maternal reporting of mode of delivery is highly reliable. This is important for clinical staff caring for women and those conducting epidemiological studies. Additional data sources may be necessary to gather reliable data from ethnic minority women, particularly those born outside the UK, or to distinguish forceps from ventouse, or planned from emergency caesarean section.
It has been documented that hospitals with records retention programs have 55 percent less records, spend less time on record maintenance and retrieval of records and can find records on demand when requested. This all adds up to savings in time and space and improved quality in an age when these commodities are precious resources. No other industry that I can think of has as its mainstay the need for good quality records as hospitals do. Don't pass up this opportunity to manage your records as carefully as you have been managing your other resources: money, manpower and materiel.
Proper record-keeping of emergency department visits and hospitalizations of injured children is vital for appropriate patient management. Determination and documentation of the circumstances surrounding the injury event are essential. This information not only is the basis for preventive counseling, but also provides clues about how similar injuries in other youth can be avoided. The hospital records have an important secondary purpose; namely, if sufficient information about the cause and mechanism of injury is documented, it can be subsequently coded, electronically compiled, and retrieved later to provide an epidemiologic profile of the injury, the first step in prevention at the population level. To be of greatest use, hospital records should indicate the "who, what, when, where, why, and how" of the injury occurrence and whether protective equipment (eg, a seat belt) was used. The pediatrician has two important roles in this area: to document fully the injury event and to advocate the use of standardized external cause-of-injury codes, which allow such data to be compiled and analyzed.
This paper discusses inference from hypothesis-generating studies on occupational risks for lung cancer based on routine hospital records. A hospital-based case-control study on 567 male lung cancer patients and 906 controls provided a practical example. Among possible causes of bias, the effects of poor detail in the occupational information, of a large proportion of exclusions due to incomplete information, of cardiovascular diseases as the prevalent diagnosis among controls, of selecting cases and controls from different hospitals with likely differences in referring areas, and the problem of multiple comparisons are highlighted. Significant excess lung cancer risks were found for farmers, miners, crushers, stonemasons and cement plant workers, and stock handlers and stevedores. Positive findings with small numbers of observations are more likely to be artificially generated, but also the precision of more robust risk estimates may be affected. The limits to inference from hypothesis generating case-control studies based upon routine hospital records, such as in the example described, outweigh the advantage of the ready availability of these data-bases.