Medical recording in psychiatrie institutions —
The individual medical recording of patients in psychiatric institutions in the Netherlands started in 1967. Abstractcards of each admitted and discharged patient to a tentral point — the bureau of the Chief Officer for Mental Health — where the data are codified and put on punching-cards. Once a year every participating institution receives a set of tables, concerning relations in different ways (diagnosis versus age, diagnosis versus length of stay, etc., etc.) of its own patients. The pooled tables give much important information. It is intended to eitent the registration. Other institutions, e.g. those for mentally retarded, will participate in this registration and — in a modified way — also the out-patient services.
The system of the registration is in full development. The work of the private psychiatrist and of the family doctor has in future also to be involved, particularly concerning psychiatrie epidemiology.