Survival during and after hospitalization: a medical record linkage.

In Sweden, hospital stays, deaths, sick- listings and censuses have long been stored on electronic media. The purpose of the study was to apply post-hospital survival measures to hospitals having differing degrees of specialization by linking exist ing data in censuses and in-patient registers. In-patient records totaling 3.6 million were collected. They were linked to the 1985 and 1990 censuses regarding patients' background data, and the national insurance register. Results found that the surviva l was longer and the return to work quicker when hospitals were well staffed, had competent personnel and many specialties. In general, small hospitals were worse off in all aspects. Concludes that small hospitals should be given better support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]