Hospital discharge reports may be an inadequate source of information to evaluate care quality

To examine whether there is adequate available information in hospital discharge records (HDR) to retrospectively evaluate the adequacy of medical care to patients suffering from ischemic heart disease (IHD) and to relate care quality to physicians' decisions. Cross-sectional study in which a total of 690 HDRs of patients admitted to three university teaching hospitals in Seville, Spain, on account of ischemic heart disease. The fulfillment of 15 parameters representing an adaptation to the CMBD regulation to IHD. The criterion of adequate information was set at 80% of data. Only 2.8% of HDRs contains adequate information. According to the analysed data, relevant fulfillment variability was observed. There were significant differences in fulfillment depending upon hospital and type of patient, with more information among younger patients and comorbidity. HDRs contain inadequate information to evaluate medical care.