On the value of medical records by Florence Nightingale

 Already in 1863, Florence Nightingale in her 'Notes on Hospitals', wrote: "In attempting to arrive at the truth, I have applied everywhere for information, but in scarcely an instance have I been able to obtain hospital records fit for any purposes of comparison. If they could be obtained, they would enable us to decide many other questions besides the one alluded to. They would show subscribers how their money was being spent, what amount of good was really being done with it, or whether the money was not doing mischief rather than good: they would tell us the exact sanitary state of every hospital and of every ward in it, where to seek for causes of insalubrity and their nature; and, if wisely used, these improved statistics would tell us more of the relative value of particular operations and modes of treatment than we have any means of ascertaining at present" (F. Nightingale, 1863, p. 176; G.O. Barnett, 1989, p. 85).

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