Quality of coding of diseases and medical proceduresat Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

Objective: To find out the quality of coding of diseases and medical procedures at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), Nairobi, Kenya. Design: Cross-sectional descriptive study. Setting : Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi, Kenya. Subjects: One hundred eighty four respondents . Results: The study set to determine the quality of coding of diseases and medical procedures at KNH. A sample of 184 files was studied. The files were fro m all specialties in the hospital. 150 (82%) files were from patients who were discharged from the hospital and 34(18% files were from deceased. The disease coding was performed accurately in 89 % of the files. Most of the miscoding arose as aresult of misintepretat ion of tne medical abbreviations. The disease reporting wa acuurate in 91% of the cases. Non of the coders ha d training contrary to the World Health Organizatios (WHO) recommendations. Conclusion The KNH has the responsibility to ensure that all t he coders are trained as per WHO guidelines. The di sease coding and reporting should be accurate for plannin g and for the resources allocation purposes. This should be done in all healthcare institutions as co ding transforms medical diagnosis and procedures in to universal medical code diagnosis.