Quality of Clinical Coding at Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital, Nairobi City County, Kenya

Abstract

Introduction: Professionals from various cadres in the health sector raise concerns regarding the poor quality of clinical coding leading to lack of evidence-based practice. Assessing the quality of the clinical coding in one of Nairobi City County’s major hospital would be a step towards establishing the exact gaps in quality of the coding process and outcome. Method: The study aimed at establishing the quality of clinical coding within Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital. A cross-sectional descriptive design was used, with a quality of clinical coding checklist used classify codes assignment or lack of which. The sample included 300 patient files selected randomly from a month-long list of patients. Results: The study found out that the overall code accuracy was above average given that majority (58%) of the code assignment were good as established by a composite score of the various coding quality attributes assessed. Code completion was excellent at the facility, as established from the 99% of the files that were completely coded. Conclusions: The health facility could act as a good benchmark for code completion. However, code completion without accuracy in the code assignment invalidates the overall quality of coding. There is great room for improvement as far as code accuracy is concerned.