MTY1106 HEALTH INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY (Lecture)
W8
HMIS Data Quality
Ms. Jilian Vanessa Lopez | FEU BS Medical Technology 2023
reference:
HIS for MLS book, handout, lec video
OBJECTIVES
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
1. Discuss data quality, quality assessment, and
development implementation plan
2. Explain the importance of data quality tools
3. Differentiate the different techniques used in root cause
analysis
DATA QUALITY
- Over the years data quality has become a major concern
for large companies especially in the areas of customer
relationship management (CRM), data integration, and
regulation requirements. Aside from the fact that poor
data quality generates costs, it also affects customer
satisfaction, company reputation, and even the strategic
decisions of the management
- Data quality – the overall utility of a dataset(s) as a
function of its ability to be processed easily and analyzed
for a database, data warehouse, or data analytics system.
- Data quality signifies the data’s appropriateness to
serve its purpose in a given context. Having quality
data means that the data useful and consistent.
- Data cleansing can be done to raise the quality of
available data (Rouse, 2005).
ASPECTS OF DATA QUALITY
▪ Accuracy – Indicates whether the data is free from
significant errors and whether the number seems to make
sense
▪ Completeness – Indicates whether there is enough
information to draw a conclusion about the data and
whether enough individuals responded to it to ensure the
representativeness
▪ Update status – The data are up-to-date, and
information is available on time.
▪ Relevance – Data should have sufficient detail
▪ Consistency – Considers the extent to which data is
collected using the same process and procedures by
everyone doing the collection and in all locations
overtime.
▪ Reliability – The data are measured and collected
consistently over time.
▪ Appropriate presentation – If it is suitable for the
intended purpose.
▪ Accessibility – should be easily accessed data
TWO TECHNIQUES TO CHECK HMIS DATA ACCURACY:
✓ Lot quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS)
✓ Routine Data Quality Assessment (RDQA)
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L8
LOT QUALITY ASSURANCE SAMPLING (LQAS)
- A tool that allows the use of small random samples to
distinguish between different groups of data elements
(or Lots) with high and low data quality.
- Has been widely applied in the healthcare industry for
decades and has been primarily used for quality
assurance of products.
- The concept and application of LQAS have been adopted
in the context of District Health Information System
(DHIS) data quality assurance.
Steps in Applying LQAS
1. Define the service to be assessed (e.g., DQA of DHIS)
2. Identify the unit of interest: a supervisory area, facility,
hospital, district
3. Define the higher and lower thresholds of performance
based on prior information about the expected
performance of the region of interest
4. Determine the level of acceptable error
5. From a table, determine the sample size and decision rule
for acceptable errors to declare an area as performing
“below expectation”
6. The number of errors observed (mismatched data
elements will determine reliability if the facility is
performing above or below expectation)
ROUTINE DATA QUALITY ASSESSMENT TOOL (RDQA)
- A simplified version of the Data Quality Audit (DQA) which
allows programs and projects to verify and assess the
quality of their reported data
- It aims to strengthen their data management and
reporting systems.
Objectives
✓ Rapidly verify the quality of reported data for key
indicators at selected sites.
✓ Implement corrective measures with action plans for
strengthening data management and reporting system
and improving data quality.
✓ Monitor capacity improvements and performance of
data management and reporting system to produce
quality data.
The RDQA is a multipurpose tool that is most effective when
routinely used. Following are the uses for the RDQA tool
(RDQA User Manual, 2015):
RDQA Use Case Example
Routine data quality Routine data quality checks
checks as part of on- can be included in already
going supervision planned supervision visits at
the service delivery sites
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 MTY1106 HMIS Data Quality

Initial and follow-up Repeated assessments (e.g., ▪ Designate team member responsibilities
assessments of data biannually, or annually) of a - Create a general team plan with overall roles that
management and system’s ability to collect and each team member will play
reporting systems report quality data at all levels ▪ Define metrics for success
can be used to identify gaps - How will you determine if you have achieved
and monitor necessary your goal?
improvements.
Strengthening of the Monitoring and evaluation
program’s staff capacity (M&E) staff can be trained on DATA QUALITY TOOLS
in data management the RDQA and sensitized to - A data quality tool analyzes information and identifies
and reporting the need to strengthen the key incomplete or incorrect data.
functional areas linked to data - Data cleansing follows after the complete profiling of data
management and reporting in concerns, which could range anywhere from reviewing
order to produce quality data. abnormalities to merging repeated information.
Preparation for a formal The RDQA tool can help - By maintaining data integrity, the process enhances the
data quality audit identify data quality issues and reliability of the information being used by the
areas of weakness in the data organization.
management and reporting - Usually, this data quality software products can share
system that would need to be features with master data management, data integration,
strengthened to increase or big data solutions.
readiness for a formal data
quality audit. - Gartner (2017) explain how these data quality tools are
External assessments Such use of the RDQA for used to address problem in data quality:
by partners of the external assessments could be
quality of data more frequent, more ▪ Parsing and Standardization
streamlined, and less resource - Refers to the decomposition of fields into
intensive than comprehensive component parts and formatting the values into
data quality audits that used consistent layout based on industry’s standards
DQA version for auditing. and patterns and user-defined business rules.
▪ Generalized “cleansing”
- The modification of data values to meet domain
DEVELOPMENT IMPLEMENTATION PLAN restrictions, constraints on integrity, or other
- An implementation plan is a project management tool that rules that define data quality as sufficient for the
illustrates how a project is expected to progress at a high organization.
level. ▪ Matching
- It helps ensure that a development team is working to - The identification and merging of related entries
deliver and complete tasks on time (Visual Paradigm, within or across data sets
2009). ▪ Profiling
- It is also important in ensuring the efficient flow of - Refers to the analysis of data to capture
communication between those who are involved in the statistics, or metadata to determine the quality of
project so as to minimize issues that would delay delivery the data and identify data quality issues
of the project ▪ Monitoring
- Validates the estimation and schedule of the project plan. - Refers to the deployment of controls to ensure
conformity of data to business rules set by the
- It is developed through the following key steps organization
(Smartsheet, 2017) ▪ Enrichment
- The enhancement of the value of the data by
▪ Define Goals/objectives using related attributes from external sources
- Address the question, “What do you want to such as consumer demographic attributes or
accomplish?” geographic descriptors.
▪ Schedule Milestones
- Outline the deadline and timeline in the
implementation phase
▪ Allocate resources
- Determine whether you have sufficient
resources and decide how you will procure those
missing.

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 MTY1106 HMIS Data Quality

ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS - It lays down the potential causes in a bar graph
- A root cause analysis is a problem solving method that and track the collective percentage in a line
identifies the root causes of the problems or events graph to the top of the table.
instead of simply addressing the obvious symptoms.
- The aim is to improve the quality of the products by using ▪ Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)
systematic ways in order to be effective (Bowen, 2011). - Used in risk and safety analysis
- Among the core building blocks in the continuous - Uses a Boolean logic to determine the root
improvement efforts of an organization in terms of its cause of an undesirable event
operation dynamics, especially in the way it handles
information.
- Root cause analysis alone will not produce any valuable
results.

TECHNIQUES IN ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS

▪ Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)

- FMEA aims to find various modes of failure
within a system and address the following
question for execution: - The undesirable event is listed at the top of the
o What is the mode in which an observed tree and then all the potential causes are listed
failure occurs? down to form the shape of an upside-down tree
o How many times does a cause of failure
occur?
o What actions are implemented to ▪ Currently Reality Tree (CRT)
- Used when the root causes of multiple problem
prevent this cause from occurring
need to be analyzed all at once.
again?
o Are these actions effective and
efficient?
- Used when there is a new product or process or
when there are changes or updates in a product
and when a problem is reported through
customer feedback.

- The problems are listed down followed by the

potential cause for a problem. By doing so, a
cause common to all problems will appear.

▪ Fishbone
▪ Pareto Analysis - Also called Ishikawa or Cause and-effect
- Uses the Pareto Principle which states that 20 diagrams
percent of the work creates 80 percent of the - The diagram looks like a fishbone as it shows
results. the categorized causes and sub causes of a
- Used when there are multiple potential causes problem.
to a problem

- This diagraming technique is useful in grouping

causes into categories (could be 4Ms, 4Ss,
8Ps)

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 MTY1106 HMIS Data Quality
▪ Kepner-Tregoe Technique
- Breaks a problem down to its roots cause by
assessing a situation using priorities and orders
of concern specific issues
- The various decisions that should be made to
address the problem are then outlined.
- Then a potential problem analysis is made to
ensure that the actions recommended are
sustainable.
▪ Rapid Problem Resolution Problem Diagnosis
- Diagnoses the causes of recurrent problems by
following the three phases below
o Discover – data gathering and analysis of
the findings
o Investigate – creation of a diagnostic plan
and identification of the root cause through
careful analysis of the diagnostic data
o Fix – fixing the problem and monitoring to
confirm and validate that the correct root
cause was identified
Sustaining a Culture of Information Use
- Choo, Bergeron, Detlor, and Heaton (2008) state that
information culture affects outcomes of information
use.
- The information culture is determined by the
following variables: mission, history, leadership,
employee traits, industry, and national culture.
- Information culture can also be shaped by cognitive
and epistemic expectations which are influenced by
the way tasks are performed and decisions are
made.
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KEY POINTS TO REMEMBER
✓ Data quality is the overall utility of a data set(s) as a
function of its ability to be processed easily and analyzed
for a data base, data warehouse, or data analytics
system.
✓ Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS) is a tool that
allows the use of small random samples to distinguish
between different groups of data elements (or lots) with
high and low data quality.
✓ The Routine Data Quality Assessment (RDQA) is a
simplified version of the data quality audit (DQA) which
allows programs and projects to verify and assess the
quality of their reported data.
✓ The development of an implementation plan is important
in ensuring that the communication between those who
are involved in the project will not encounter any issues
and work will also be delivered on time.
✓ A root cause analysis is a problem-solving method aimed
at identifying the root causes of problems or events
instead of simply addressing the obvious symptoms.
✓ Techniques in root cause analysis include failure mode,
and effects analysis (FMEA), Pareto Analysis, Fault Tree
Analysis, Currently Reality Tree, Fishbone or Ishikawa or
Cause and-effect diagrams, Kepner-Tregoe Technique,
and RPR Problems Diagnosis
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