Audit of medical certificate of cause of death at a tertiary care teaching hospital

Medical or medicolegal documents like medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD) are important in view of mortality statistics. Such certificates are inaccurately or incompletely filled then these have adverse impact on health and diseases related statistics. We analysed 278 MCCDs for major errors, minor errors and completeness of information at tertiary care teaching hospital, Navi Mumbai, India. Almost all certificate (100%) had either a major or minor error. We observed at least one major error (244, 87.76%) and minor error (276, 99.28%) in MCCDs. The most common major error was sequencing errors (180, 64.74%), followed by unacceptable cause of death (105, 37.76%). Combination of two major errors was seen in 99 (35.61%) MCCDs and combination of two minor errors were seen in 143 (51.43%) MCCDs. Most common minor error was no mention of time interval (275, 98.92%). Incomplete MCCD was observed in 44 (15.82%) cases and maximum certificate had not commented or mentioned about status of pregnancy/delivery (n=24, 8.63%) in the certificates. In our study most common cause of death as per ICD classification was Circulatory (n=105, 37.76%). Similar studies should be regularly conducted tounderstandthe burden of errors made byclinicians. Even routineaudit of MCCDs willhelp to assess the problemin hospitals. We recommend routine educational work shop to train the clinicians regarding complete and accurate filling of MCCDs.