Reliability audit of a regional cardiac surgery registry.
OBJECTIVE
The British Columbia Provincial Cardiac Registry collects demographic and clinical data on all patients who undergo cardiac surgery procedures in the province. The purpose of this study was to compare the reliability of data contained in Registry with data contained in hospital charts.


METHODS
Registry and hospital charts were compared for 480 cases. Thirty cases were randomly selected for the province's 16 cardiac surgeons. For each case, 10 distinct fields were selected for analysis and classified as consistent, inconsistent, or rejected (data unavailable in one or other source).


RESULTS
The overall rate of consistency between charts and the Registry was 86.4%, with an inconsistency rate of 9.9% and a rejection rate of 3.7%. Consistency rates varied significantly across the 10 fields and among the 16 surgeons. Pairwise comparisons of rates between fields indicated that specific field types were problematic and should be targeted for improvement. In addition, pairwise comparisons of rates between surgeons indicated that further education on Registry use is required.


CONCLUSIONS
Recommendations for database design and management include provision of standard definitions for all fields; education of users; extension of the number of mandatory fields; revision of check-off box fields to yes/no/unsure fields; and collection of data close to the time that it is generated.
Volk
T
T
Vancouver Hospital & Health Sciences Center, B.C., Canada.
Hahn
L
L
Hayden
R
R
Abel
J
J
Puterman
M L
ML
Tyers
G F
GF
D001955:British Columbia; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016208:Databases, Factual / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D008485:Medical Audit; D008499:Medical Records / Q000592:standards; D012042:Registries / Q000592:standards*