Journal article
Why data falsification happens
published 22 April 2022
published 22 April 2022
This qualitative study published in BMJ Global Health aimed to understand reasons why healthcare providers intentionally falsify maternal and newborn health data in two regions of Ethiopia. In Ethiopia the Health Management Information System (HMIS) collects data predominantly related to service delivery at all levels of the health system. Improving the quality and utility of HMIS data is a priority for the Ministry of Health of Ethiopia. Despite this, poor data quality has been identified as a major system weakness and increased focus has been placed on the need to improve HMIS data quality and prevent data falsification.
The IDEAS-led study team conducted in-depth interviews with a range of staff in hospitals, health centres and associated health posts in Oromia and Amhara regions. All participating health facilities were part of a large-scale quality improvement (QI) initiative. Results from the interviews show that although study participants were hesitant to report personally falsifying data they do report it to be common practice and had experienced it in other health facilities or had been told about it by other health workers.
This study finds, underpinned by system’s focus on numbers, four main reasons drives intentional data falsification:
Findings from this study point to the need for data quality improvement frameworks to reflect on the reasons for data falsification identified through this study and the need to disentangling rewards and punishment from performance reports based on HMIS report.