Hospital utilization reviews under field conditions: potential and improvements

Hospital reviews based on an adaptation of Gertman and Restuccia's Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol were performed by acute care hospitals and the canton of Vaud (Switzerland) public health department in three settings during a six-month period in 1990-91. Interrater agreement between hospital and public health department reviewers was measured on 1,847 days of consecutively admitted patients during the last weeks of the reviews.