Assessment of Clinical Coding Practices and Its Impact on the Quality of Health Care Services in Government Hospitals in Calabar Urban, Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract

The aim of this study is to assess ‘’clinical coding practices and its impact on the quality of healthcare services in Government Hospitals in Calabar urban, Cross River State, Nigeria. To achieve the purpose, the basic structures and the research objectives were identified. Three research questions and three hypotheses were formulated for the study. A well designed questionnaire was prepared and one hundred copies printed and distributed to respondents in the sampled hospitals for completion. The completed copies of the questionnaire were collected back for analysis. The data were extracted from the questionnaire and arranged in tables to ease percentage analysis. Chi – square statistical tool was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance and the result of the study revealed positive relationship to the variables under investigation. The following recommendations were suggested for implementation: The institutions should provide incentives to motive the staff engage in coding and indexing activities in the Hospitals; re – training of coding staff to acquaint them of recent development in clinical coding; a computer – assisted coding system should be introduce to enhance coding of diagnosis.