Drowning information system in Songkhla Province, 2017

Abstract

Drowning is an important problem in Songkhla province. This study aims to review on drowning information system and to study the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the data in order to improve the accidental drowning reporting system. A cross-sectional study was done by interviewing the involving staffs from the center hospital, the general hospital, 2 community hospitals, 4 district public health offices and the provincial health office in Songkhla province from January 29^th to February 2^nd, 2018. The medical records of in- and out-patients were reviewed from October 1^st, 2016 to September 30^th, 2017 and were compared with the standard health information, Injury surveillance system, and individual reports of death by drowning. Findings reveals that there are 3 sources of data on accidental drowning: an injury surveillance system, individual reports of death by drowning and 19 external causes of injury from the standard health information. The qualitative characteristic result found that all of these system are easy to handle and flexible. According to data report of 53 accidental drowning cases, the completeness of the standard health information was 80.00%. The positive predictive value of the standard health information was 72.73%. The completeness and accuracy of each source is mainly personal information, date and time of accidence, and date and time of hospital arrival. Due to the feature difference of each data system, utilization of data should be considered based on the data attributes. Data collection should reduce workload. The quality of information should be focused. The leading cause of the injury should be recorded as the primary cause. Drowning information systems should beunder supervision and follow-up as well as be continuously evaluated. Training on collecting the data from drowning investigation should be provided.