[Medical records of critically ill patients].

Background: Comprehensive, high-quality medical records are necessary for the communication between health care professionals. We wanted to assess the quality of records on critically ill patients in a teaching hospital in relation to statutory requirements and official guidelines.

Material And Methods: We assessed the medical records on 119 patients who died in the hospital upon discharge from its intensive care unit over the 1999 to March 2002 period: the frequency of entries, entries about withdrawal or withholding of therapy, and the quality of the documentation.