Abstract
To improve healthcare quality for hospitalized patients with malaria in Benin, a feasible and valid evaluation method is needed. Because observation of inpatients is challenging, chart abstraction is an attractive option. However, the quality of inpatient charts is unknown. We employed three methods in five hospitals to assess 11 signs of malaria and severe disease: 1) chart abstraction (probability sample of inpatients), 2) chart abstraction compared to interviews of inpatients and health workers (HWs), and 3) abstraction from charts of recently discharged inpatients compared to interviews with HWs. Method 1 showed that of 473 malaria signs (from 43 charts), 178 (38%, 95% confidence interval 24-51%) were documented. Method 2 showed that 96% (45 of 47) of documented signs were valid. Method 3 suggests that 65% (36 of 55) of non-documented signs were assessed (but not documented) by HWs. Chart abstraction was feasible and documented data were valid, but results should be interpreted cautiously in consideration of low levels of documentation.