Quality of the underlying cause of death summary with septicemia

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the quality of the underlying cause of death summary with septicemia. This study focused on the correctness and consistency of the summary of underlying cause of death with septicemia in the medical death certificates (Thor Ror.4/1) and in the discharge summaries and the correct coding for the cause of death in the medical death certificates (Thor Ror.4/1) and in the discharge summaries.

Materials and Methods: The study was conducted using a quantitative research design. The data were collected from the patients admitted to Panyananthaphikkhu Chonprathan Medical Center (PCMC) whose underlying cause of death was septicemia, 382 cases from the Thor Ror.4/1 and 91 cases from the discharge summaries. The data were analyzed using frequency, percentage and Kappa statistics.

Results: The results of this study pointed out that the cause of death summaries in the Thor Ror.4/1 were more correct than those of in the discharge summary as correct summaries were found 76.4% and incorrect summaries were found 23.56%. In the discharge summary, correct summaries were found 48.35% and incorrect summaries were found 51.65%. Most of them were incorrect since no infection was indicated in the cause of death according to the rule of the underlying cause of death summary, but the cause of death was summarized to be septicemia instead. According to the consistency analysis, it was found that 60.44% of all were consistently summarized, and the Kappa statistics value was 0.49 (moderate consistency). With regard to the coding of the cause of death, 99.48% were correct in the Thor Ror.4/1 and 99.15% were correct in the discharged summaries.

Conclusion: Most of the underlying cause of death summaries in the Thor Ror.4/1 and in the discharge summaries were not correct according to the rule of the underlying cause of death summary. PCMC should provide training to staff in order to enhance their knowledge about how to summarize the cause of death correctly to ensure the hospital cause of death summaries are more efficient.