Case
Abstract
Hospital discharge record is an important source of information about hospital admissions. It can be used to study the epidemiology of diseases treated in hospital, to evaluate activities of wards or structures and to evaluate health systems. This research study demonstrates how the usage of hospital discharge records can be useful for outcome research, in particular in reporting outcome differences among hip-fractured patients and patients underwent elective hip replacement. To correct for possible confounders, a propensity score matching procedure was performed to match patients for baseline characteristics. After matching procedure, outcomes were compared between two study groups, showing significant results. This analysis shows how administrative data can be used to evaluate health system to implement preventive policies and to improve patients’ outcomes.