Quality of death certificates completion for COVID‐19 cases in the southeast of Iran: A cross‐sectional study

Abstract

Background and Aim: Death certificate (DC) data provides a basis for public health policies and statistics and contributes to the evaluation of a pandemic's evolution. This study aimed to evaluate the quality of the COVID-19-related DC completion.Methods: A descriptive-analytical study was conducted to review a total of 339 medical records and DCs issued for COVID-19 cases from February 20 to September 21, 2020. A univariate analysis (χ 2 as an unadjusted analysis) was performed, and multiple logistic regression models (odd ratio [OR] and 95% confidence interval [CI] as adjusted analyses) were used to evaluate the associations between variables.Results: Errors in DCs were classified as major and minor. All of the 339 examined DCs were erroneous; more than half of DCs (57.8%) had at least one major error; all of them had at least one minor error. Improper sequencing (49.3%), unacceptable underlying causes of death (UCOD) (33.3%), recording more than one cause per line (20.1%), listing general conditions instead of specific terms (11.2%), illegible handwriting (8.3%), competing causes (6.2%), and mechanisms (3.8%) were most common major errors, respectively. Absence of time interval (100%), listing mechanism allying with UCOD (51.6%), using abbreviations (45.4%), missing major comorbidities (16.5%), and listing major comorbidities in part I (16.5%) were most common minor errors, respectively. Conclusion:The rate of both major and minor errors was high. Using automated tools for recording and selecting death cause(s), promoting certifiers' skills on DC completion, and applying quality control mechanisms in DC documentation can improve death data and statistics.

Physicians' Perspectives with the E-prescribing System in Five Teaching Hospitals

“…By enhancing the accuracy of medication registration and reducing medication errors, e-prescribing can contribute to lower the rising costs of health care services and significantly improve the quality of treatment. 17 18 19 20 Moreover, this system offers various benefits, including increased patient safety, improved medication compliance, better communication between physicians and pharmacists, and faster prescription refill processing compared to paper prescriptions. 5 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Additionally, the use of e-prescribing is associated with a reduction in prescribing errors and adverse drug reactions as well as improved drug treatment outcomes, overall health care performance, accuracy, efficiency, and quality of health care and public health.…”

“…32 Raeesi et al 43 evaluated the efficiency and effectiveness of the e-prescribing system in a private hospital affiliated with the Social Security Organization (SSO) in Sistan and Baluchistan Province in Iran. Because of the difference in the e-prescribing system used in Social Security hospitals with the system used in public hospitals that utilize two Iran Health Insurance Organization and the Social Security Organization (SSO) e-prescribing systems, 17 it is crucial to conduct a similar study in public hospitals. With this in mind, the purpose of this study was to assess physicians' viewpoints regarding the efficiency, effectiveness, opportunities, and challenges associated with e-prescribing in five teaching hospitals affiliated with Zahedan University of Medical Sciences.…”

Prevalence of maternal mortality causes based on ICD-MM: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Therefore, it is conceivable that other similar studies with modifications to each of the previously mentioned factors will result in partially different results. (2) The results of the present study focused on the prevalence of maternal deaths reported based on the ICD-MM classification, so many studies that investigated the causes of maternal deaths based on other sources were excluded. (3) The present meta-analysis excluded maternal near misses to focus solely on the maternal deaths that occurred.…”

“…Accurate death statistics are important for public health decision-making and evaluating the effectiveness of public health programs. The absence of reliable data on the mortality causes can result in the provision of low-quality health services [ 1 , 2 ]. Maternal mortalities are among the avoidable deaths that have garnered national, international, and political commitments for reduction.…”

Risk factors for deaths associated with COVID-19 according to the cause of death classification in Republic of Korea

“…In addition, issues related to the classification of deaths have been raised, as India lacks complete death certificates [ 23 ], and Indonesia is known to have under-reported deaths due to incomplete certification of deaths [ 24 ]. A study also identified many errors related to causes of death on death certificates in Iran [ 25 ]. Therefore, research emphasizing the importance of accurate death reporting according to an analysis of the underlying or direct cause of death is needed.…”