Recording of deaths in hospital information systems: implications for audit and outcome studies.

Abstract

Study objective-The aim was to report on the extent to which death certificates which specify that death occurred in hospital can be matched and linked with routine hospital inpatient information systems.Design-The study involved linkage of hospital records which specified that death occurred in hospital to corresponding death certificates; and linkage of death certificates which specified that death occurred in hospital to corresponding hospital records.Setting

In-hospital deaths as fraction of all deaths within 30 days of hospital admission for surgery: analysis of routine statistics

“…1 2 Hospital statistics are not linked to death certificate data nationally, although this has long been feasible. 3 4 Even the National Confidential Enquiry into Perioperative Deaths, a meticulous ongoing national study with local clinical reporting and case note review of deaths, is constrained practically to the identification of deaths in the hospital admissions in which the operations were done 5. By using hospital data linked to death certificate data, we studied the extent to which in-hospital deaths accounted for all deaths within 30 days of hospital admissions during which operations were done.…”

Validation of Jarman’s method of calculation of hospital standardised mortality ratios

“…Henderson et al 51 undertook a study utilising the Oxford record linkage study (ORLS) on the recording of deaths in hospital information systems and the implications for audit and outcome studies. They found 98.2% of hospital record abstracts which specified that death occurred in hospital were linked by their standard computer-based techniques to death certificates.…”