A CLINICAL CHART FOR THE RECORDS OF PATIENTS IN SMALL HOSPITALS.

Abstract

In very many of the smaller hospitals throughout our country, a great deal of good work is done, and there is no question but that a careful record of this would prove useful, instructive and of benefit to science if it could only be observed in an accessible form. Aside from the strictly scientific aspect of the matter, refer ence to the progress of a patient during a sojourn in a hospital becomes frequently important in a legal way, as a means of substantiating or refuting claims for damages, and as a groundwork on which an expert witness may base an opinion. Witness for instance the case of an individual with marked asymmetry of the chest wall, who claimed that his existing disability was largely due to his having his ribs crushed in a railroad train wreck. His hospital record showed no variations in pulse, respiration or temperature during the