A mixed-methods assessment of Routine Health Information System (RHIS) Data Quality and Factors Affecting it, Addis Ababa City Administration, Ethiopia, 2020

Abstract

Abstract
Background: Effective and efficient health care services need evidence-based decisions, and these decisions should rely on information from high-quality data. However, despite a lot of efforts, routine health data is still claimed to be not at the required level of quality. Previous studies have primarily focused on organization-related factors while little emphasis was given for perception and knowledge of service providers' gaps. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the quality of data generated from routine health information systems and factors contributing to data quality from diverse aspects.

Objective: This study aims in assessing the quality of routine health information system data generated from health facilities in Addis Ababa city administration, providing the level of data quality of routine health information system, and factors affecting it.

Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 568 health professionals from 33 health centers selected randomly using a two-stage sampling method. A qualitative study was also conducted using 12 key informants.

Result: The overall regional data quality level was 76.22%. Health professionals' motivation towards routine health care data have shown a strong association with data quality, (r (31) =.71, p<.001). Lack of adequate Health information system task competence, non-functional PMT, and lack of supervision was also commonly reported reasons for poor data quality.

Conclusion: This review has documented the data quality of routine health information systems from health centers under Addis Ababa city. Overall data quality (76.22%) was found to be below the national expectation level, which is 90%. The study emphasized the role of behavioral factors in improving the quality of routine health care data. [Ethiop. J. Health Dev. 2021; 35(SI-1): 15-24 ]

Keywords: RHIS, Accuracy, completeness, timeliness, consistency, Addis Ababa