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In Sweden, hospital stays, deaths, sick‐ listings and censuses have long been stored on electronic media. The purpose of the study was to apply post‐hospital survival measures to hospitals having differing degrees of specialization by linking existing data in censuses and in‐patient registers. In‐patient records totaling 3.6 million were collected. They were linked to the 1985 and 1990 censuses regarding patients’ background data, and the national insurance register. Results found that the survival was longer and the return to work quicker when hospitals were well staffed, had competent personnel and many specialties. In general, small hospitals were worse off in all aspects. Concludes that small hospitals should be given better support.

Mortality statistics are an important source of information concerning variations in time and place, identification of risk factors and the evaluation of treatment programs. In this study, a new death certificate was completed “blind” on the basis of hospital records from the last episode of care, across a random sample of 1,376 cases. The results showed that the overlap between the official register’s underlying cause of death and that of a panel was 72 per cent at the three‐digit level. The official underlying cause of death from cerebrovascular diseases (CVD) was 72 cases in this sample, while 93 were deemed to have CVD by a panel. Additionally, of the 1,233 cases originally reported as non‐CVD, the panel deemed non‐CVD to be the true underlying cause in 1,176 cases. The paper concludes that CVD was most often correctly reported as the underlying cause of death in the investigated ages up to 75 years but plain differences were found between specialities and in different hospital size.