Introduction:

medical audits involve critical and systematic analysis of the medical care process, diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, the use of resources and the results obtained. Auditing systems provide tools for quality continuous improvement.

Objective:

to assess the quality of medical records (HMR) of hospitalized children.

Material and methods:

HMR cross-sectional study of of children discharged from moderate care units at a reference hospital center between January 1 and December 31, 2015. Analyzed Variables: patients’ personal data, grids, growth curves, socio-economic background, admissions, evolution, prescription, transcription, diagnosis at discharge, discharge Report 3 categories were devised: Sufficient score greater or equal 80%, Acceptable 60-79%, Insufficient < 60%. HMR’s quality was analyzed by age, hospitalization time, diagnosis at discharge and season of the year. Random sampling was carried out (expected error prevalence 50%, accuracy 5%, power 80%) (N=385). P < 0,05 was considered significant.

Results:

Out of 385 HMRs analyzed, 52% (202) were boys, median age 3 months-old. 17% were sufficient, 49.6% were acceptable and 33.4% were insufficient. Sufficient HMRs were predominant in children of less than 1 year-old (21,5% vs 14%) which had a hospitalization time of less or equal 3 days (21% vs 11%) p<0.05. Insufficient HMRs were predominant in Winter (43% vs 29%. p<0.05).

Conclusion:

A qualitative analysis is needed in order to reinforce the analysis of these results. It is important to implement a continuous HMR auditing system in order to make progress regarding the development of electronic records as a tool to improve the clinical management systems.

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