Assessment of death notification and registration process: Case study of Rundu district in Kavango east region, Namibia
Mortality information is most directly valuable in the health sector. They help to identify high mortality areas and high-risk groups in the population. They are necessary to determines health services and the mostly needed relevant interventions that are likely to have great impact. Vital registration systems provide an ongoing record of demographic events, such as births and deaths. It is requirement of the country’s law to register all deaths with the Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security (MHAISS). The same ministry is the custodian of the National Population Register. The National Population Register contains records of births and deaths. Citizens are to report deaths, which took place outside health facilities to the police at local Forensic Pathology Units. The study used a Case Study methodology whereby Key-Informant Interview mapped out the business processes of death notification and registration in Rundu District. The study reviewed randomly selected notified death cases and assessed them for completeness and usefulness using the ICD-10 criteria. The quality of the data was determined using the Vital Statistic Performance Index (VSPI). The quality of the data determined four data quality attributes namely: completeness, accuracy, consistency and timeliness. The quantitative results shows that the number of registered deaths rose dramatically after the introduction of electronic death notification (e-death notification). Contrary, incompleteness in death reporting and registration systems resulted due to a variety of reasons. Among others includes poor access to serviceable facilities and lack of information on how and where to notify and register deaths. Since the year 2018, district hospitals and the department of Civil Registration (CR) offices were responsible to capture timely records on the electronic National Population Register (e-NPR). The Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS) aggregate information on deaths that occurred at public health facilities. Such records do not include deaths occurred at private hospitals, households, violent and accidental deaths. There is a need to improve the coordinated system in terms of data quality in order to enhance credibility and validity of conclusions drawn from them. An improved law is required to facilitate the creation of a complete and accurate electronic National Population Register (eNPR). The evaluation of the data quality is integral in providing end users with credible understanding from the analysis of notified death in order to improve the CR system.
Mortality, Death notification and registration, Kavango east
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