Making every death count: institutional mortality accuracy at Ola During Children’s Hospital, Sierra Leone

INTRODUCTION: health care data accuracy feeds the development of sound healthcare policy and the prioritisation of interventions in scarce resource environments. We designed a retrospective study at the sole paediatric government hospital in Sierra Leone to examine mortality statistics, specifically: the accuracy of mortality data collected in 2017; and the quality of cause of death (CoD) reporting for 2017. METHODS: the retrospective audit included all available mortality statistics collected at the hospital during the 2017 calendar year. For the purpose of calculating a mortality rate, admission data was additionally gathered. Four different hospital entities were identified that collected mortality data (the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) office; the nurse ledgers; the office of births and deaths; and the mortuary). Data from each hospital entity were used for the comparative analysis. RESULTS: striking differences were found in the rate of hospital mortality reported by different entities. The M&E office (responsible for providing data to the ministry of health and sanitation) reported a hospital mortality rate of 2.94% in 2017. Mortuary and nursing admissions records showed a hospital mortality rate of 18.7%. Discrepancies and issues of quality in CoD reporting between hospital entities were identified. CONCLUSION: significant variations were found in the generation of official hospital mortality data. Mortality data informs health service prioritisation, resource distribution, outcome measures and epidemiological surveillance. Resources to support quality improvement initiatives are needed in the creation of an in-hospital system that reports accurate data with a process for real-time institutional data feedback.