The ICF and Florence Nightingale - bringing data to statistical proof.

摘要

In 1860 when Florence Nightingale urgently recommended the use of a classification of diseases for hospital morbidity statistics, she pointed out that this "would enable the value of particular methods of treatment and of special operations to be brought to statistical proof (1). The coding and classification of disease has indeed found entrance into hospital and practitioners' charts. The outcome of disease is increasingly not just a matter of life or death; the survival of patients faced with a medical emergency or crisis, such as severe acute illness or injury, has increased significantly in recent years. Surviving patients are at risk of experiencing significant loss of functioning even after discharge from acute hospital care. Consequently, the number of those with congenital or acquired disability is increasing.