Medical record content: recurring area of concern in hospital analysis

This article reports on an analysis of 109 hospitals that received recommendations for improvement within their Medical Record Service when surveyed by the Australian Council on Health Care Standards (ACHS) in 1990. Seventy-five per cent of Medical Record Service recommendations made at an earlier survey had been fully implemented and 17% partially implemented by hospitals at the time of their next survey in 1990. The major area receiving recommendations for improvement was medical record content. Other areas of concern were quality assurance, organization and administration, and space for research and work within the service. Certain aspects of medical record content also appeared to be resistant to change from one survey to the next.