Background: Epidemiology and medical care appraisal of intensive care medicine relies on the homogeneity of information systems. This work is about a collaborative database related to intensive care units in Paris and its suburb.
Methods: A college of intensivists defined a standard dataset about stays, outcomes, severity of illness, diagnoses and work load, which are collected and analysed by a data management center. A quality control of the database was performed on a random sample of 199 stays.
Results: In 1996, 25 intensive care units participated in the database which encompassed more than 35,000 stays. The control of data quality showed a good reliability of data about stays, severity and workload but reproducibility of diagnosis coding has to be improved by means of more accurate coding guidelines.
Conclusion: This database of case-mix and outcome information allows comparison and medical care appraisal of intensive care units.