Hospital discharge databases in the surveillance of infectious diseases: Is their use warranted?

Being admitted to hospital signals an important event in an individual’s health status and well-being and, concurrently, signals an important use of health care system resources. A valuable record of such events is contained in hospital discharge summary forms. In several countries throughout the world, hospital discharge summaries are compiled into computerized databases, for later use. Databases of this nature have long been used as sources of information for a vast variety of epidemiologic studies, as well as markers of health for population and public health use. Although they contain large volumes of easily accessible health data, difficulties do exist in proper interpretation and analysis of this information. Is the use of hospital discharge databases for surveillance of infectious diseases warranted? What are the current uses, advantages and disadvantages of these databases? What, if any, future direction do they have?