title: [Letters of discharge from a University Department of Medicine. Attempt at an analysis of their contents].
abstract: 498 discharge letters, written by physicians at the Second Department of Medicine, University of Vienna were subjected to the following content analysis: procedures employed to reach a diagnostic result, length and preferred content of letters, delay between discharge of patient and posting of letter and relationship between pragmatic versus knowledge-oriented concepts. Routine hospital diagnostic procedures achieved a marked increase in accuracy in terms of medical diagnosis over initial admittance diagnosis. Enlarged diagnostic evaluation mostly occurred due to the assistance of X-rays. Letters addressed to general practitioners were longer and contained more assessment of the patient's condition than letters to specialists. Letters on average left the hospital 30 days after the patient's discharge.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001317:Austria; D019937:Diagnostic Techniques and Procedures; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008511:Medicine; D008875:Middle Aged; D010343:Patient Admission; D010351:Patient Discharge; D010821:Physicians, Family; D013038:Specialization
vernacular_title: Entlassungsbriefe aus einer Medizinischen Universitätsklinik. Versuch einer Inhaltsanalyse.