The quality of routinely collected maternity data

Abstract

The directly recorded clinical data held on the SMMIS regional database is largely accurate and consistently recorded across a variety of units. The database can therefore be considered a valuable resource for the comparative audit of maternity practice. The SMMIS technique for deriving, on a semi-automatic basis, diagnosis codes from the directly recorded fields, appears to work moderately well. We suggest that the direct method of data collection used in SMMIS could provide a model for other specialties in the National Health Service.