One thing that should be noted regarding Domain 3 – External Consistency. Comparisons with population based surveys can be tricky – you have to ensure that the data are truly comparable. Often, surveys take a couple of years to compile and publish so the values you are using are already quite dated relative to the routine data. Also, population-based surveys cover the whole population, while routine values from HMIS only cover the people who avail themselves of facilities that report to the HMIS (which often exclude many private health facilities) – not the whole population. In addition, survey aggregation units may not be the same as administrative units used to aggregate the routine data. All these factors should be considered when comparing the routine values to population-based survey values.
Anyone have experience conducting such comparisons and best practices they can share to facilitate them?
Dave
