The Autopsy, Medicine, and Mortality Statistics

The decline in the performance of autopsies in the past three decades is remarkable: from 41 percent of hospital deaths in 1961 (1) to 5 percent to 10 percent in the mid-1990s! (2) House officers in the 1960s were urged to ‘‘get the post’’ on every patient dying in a teaching hospital. Observing the postmortem examination of patients whom they had taken care of was a critical part of the training of residents in internal medicine. Currently, the residency review committee for internal medicine requires autopsies in at least 15 percent of deaths on the medical service in accredited residency programs. From 1991 to 1994, less than half of the internal medicine programs reviewed for accreditation met these minimal requirements.