Assessment of Data Quality on Expanded Programme on Immunization in Ghana: The Case of New Juaben Municipality

Abstract

Organizations of all kinds make decisions based on the data they have at their disposal. In healthcare reporting, data quality and consistency are critical to ensuring patient safety and communicating health service delivery. Quality data provides accurate and timely information to manage services. It also provides good information to manage service effectiveness as well as aids to prioritize and ensure the best use of resources. The main objective of the study was to improve on data quality on expanded programme on immunization (EPI) in the New Juaben Municipality. The work aimed at improving the accuracy of reported number of vaccinations at vaccination delivery sites as well as assesses the completeness of data that was provided. A descriptive cross-sectional study was employed. The study involved structured observation of tallied data from EPI tally books from the eight health sub-districts in the Municipality. Purposive sampling was used for this study. Data Quality Self-Assessment Tool (DQS) was the main instrument used in presenting and analyzing the accuracy and discrepancy ratios of the data. The result demonstrated discrepancies in tallied data at the vaccination delivery sites, facility summary report and report submitted to the Municipal Health Directorate. In 2011, there was 2674 over reported data to the district level while 2824 over reported data was recorded in 2012 from the eight (8) health facilities used for the study. It was observed that less importance was attached to data capture at some health facilities in the sub-districts. It was also ascertained that data storage and retrieval was very poor in some facilities visited. There is therefore the need for regular monitoring in the sub-districts’ RCHs and Health Centers in the New Juaben Municipality of Ghana to correct the mistakes.