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Logbook data as a source of birth information. Are they valid?
R A Chez1, V S Hill, L W Lowry
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Nursing, University of South Florida, Tampa, USA.
Objective:
To determine if the data recorded in the labor and delivery logbook in two hospitals are complete and consistent with the information in the patient's medical record.
Study Design:
We performed a retrospective comparison of the information in the labor and delivery logbook to the content of 110 patients' hospital charts in each of two hospitals.
Results:
The logbooks of both hospitals had erroneous entries and missing data as compared to the antepartum complications, intrapartum events and immediate newborn care recorded in the patients' medical records. The range of error in these three categories was 61%, 31% and 60% in one hospital and 37%, 29% and 30% in the other hospital.
Conclusion:
The results of this study do not support the use of logbooks as a source of data for individual or collated departmental, hospital or agency reports containing antepartum, intrapartum and newborn information.