Has there been any progress in improving the quality of hospitalised death? Replication of a US chart audit study.

Objective: To describe the experience of dying in a US tertiary academic medical centre and to compare this experience with a historical decedent sample.

Design: A retrospective, observational, chart audit study of adults (N=159) who died in hospital.

Setting: Component hospitals of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center: Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital (MHMH), Lebanon, New Hampshire, and the affiliated Veteran's Affairs Medical Center (VAMC), White River Junction, Vermont.