title: The evolving clinical chart. How it reflects and influences psychiatric and medical practice and the quality of care.
abstract: The clinical chart constitutes an evolving patient care document. This article compares charts from the turn of the century with those of today. It has changed from a simple user-friendly personal note record to a major medical-legal documentation system. With this evolution have come shifts in clinicians' attitudes toward the chart, a more active role in influencing care for the record, a much more public position of it, and a more homogenized record. It concludes with methods for the practitioners to incorporate the evolving chart into their work so as to further improve their documentation and care.
authors.affiliation: Westborough State Hospital, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Soreff
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gulkin
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Pike
mesh_terms: D003219:Confidentiality; D006801:Humans; D008499:Medical Records / Q000592:standards; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012922:Social Change