Section 6.2. Case Reporting, Data Management and Analysis

Collecting Data

facilities

STI data collection should be an integral part of STI case management.

Everyone involved must have clearly defined duties.

• 
  The data collection process should interfere as little as possible with the patient’s care and case management.
  
• 
  The data required should be data that are usually collected during case management.
  
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  Data should be recorded on outpatient cards and transferred to the patient register and standard reporting forms.
  
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  One individual needs to take responsibility for the actual reporting so that reports are made on time.
  
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  A supervisor needs to ensure that the data are ready before they are sent to the sub-national or national levels.
  
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  If personnel at sub-national levels have queries regarding the data, these queries should be investigated and answered.
  

process

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  is responsible for identifying cases and recording medical and demographic data onto patients’ charts
  
• 
  must record the diagnoses according to standard case definitions to help record officers or other staff to correctly tally at the end of the month.
  

2. Depending on data requirements for reporting, the information may be transferred directly to standard reporting forms from the patients’ charts.

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  abstracts data from the patients’ charts onto the patient register or tally sheets
  
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  only includes patients presenting for the first visit with a current episode of STI
  
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  makes separate entries for each syndrome (because some patients will have more than one syndrome, this will result in a slight overestimation of the total number of people with STIs, but will yield a more reliable estimate of the magnitude and trends of the individual syndromes)
  
• 
  transfers weekly totals from tally sheets, to standard monthly/quarterly reporting forms, to sub-national or national level
  
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  makes a zero entry if there were no cases of a specific syndrome during that month/quarter (do not leave the space blank) so the district level will know the report is complete.
  

4. In some cases, the facility will include several clinics or sites. In that case, a supervising doctor or nurse should:

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  review weekly tallies from the health facility
  

• 
  make their comments and have problems investigated before the reports are submitted to sub-national/national authorities.
  

6. 
   The final reporting forms should be copied. A copy should be sent to the sub-national/national level while the original is kept on file at the health facility.
   

Note: reports should be signed and dated by the reviewing supervisory doctor/nurse at the facility.

At the sub-

national

level

When a responsible officer at the sub-national level carefully reviews facility forms, the quality of data received at the national level is high. Of course, the better the data quality, the better the national level can make decisions that will affect every health facility.

• 
  checking for completeness of data
  
• 
  ensuring that all the variables indicated on the data collection forms are appropriately filled
  

• 
  inconsistencies (for example, STIs in very young or old patients).
  

The reviewing surveillance officer should follow up with any health facility site that has missing or inconsistent data. This should be done before forwarding the forms to the regional or national level.

• 
  If computers and software are available, a data entry clerk will enter data into a computerised database. If these resources are not available, data entry is done at the national level.
  
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  A copy of the health facility reports should be kept at the sub-national level.
  
• 
  The sub-national reporting forms should state the number of health facilities with complete reports.
  
• 
  The original sub-national summary totals should be sent to the national level, following clear reporting lines. Annex 4.2 provides a sample form for this.
  

At the national

level

Check inconsistent data with the reporting sites. At the regional and national levels (depending on your country resources), a trained data entry clerk will enter reports into a computerised database. Then the data are analysed.