The quality of injury data from hospital records in Vietnam

The objective of this research was to examine the level of agreement of coders for ICD-10 coding of injury discharges in Danang General Hospital in Vietnam. Two hundred and five medical records of children hospitalised in this facility due to injury were randomly selected and recoded. Information from medical records abstracted by two trained staff was recoded by external coders in Hanoi and in Australia, using ICD-10. The completeness and detail of external cause of injury recorded in medical records was poor. Agreement between coders for injury coding was average, with 32% to 40% discrepancy in the main diagnosis codes at three character level, and 57% to 60% discrepancy at four character level, depending on which coders were being compared. It was concluded that as hospital data represent a cost-effective source of information regarding injuries, with significant costs incurred in collecting such information through special studies and censuses (especially for a developing country such as Vietnam), it is important to establish the quality and value of hospital data for injury surveillance and prevention research and to explore ways in which these data can be improved.