Assessment of medical certification of cause of death at a tertiary care center in rural region of western Maharashtra, India

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the precision and compliance with international guidelines in the medical certification of cause of death at a rural tertiary care center in Western Maharashtra, India. Additionally, we aimed to identify prevalent errors and discrepancies while investigating the factors that influence the medical certification process at the center. By conducting this research, we sought to obtain comprehensive insights into the accuracy of cause of death documentation and contribute to enhancing the adherence to standardized practices in this crucial aspect of medical practice. The Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (hereafter MCCD) is an important document issued by a doctor for which the World Health Organisation has prescribed a standard format, together with the International Classification of Diseases (hereafter ICD). In it, the doctor records the time, causes and circumstances of the deceased person's death. 615 MCCD forms were available during two years from the MAEER MIT Pune’s MIMER Medical College & BSTR Hospital, Talegaon Dabhade and Pune. All of them were scrutinized for the completeness of the certificate and tried to find out the cause of death in which underlying cause of death was written. Data was analyzed and expressed in the percentage form. Ethical clearance was obtained from the Institutional ethics committee (No. IEC/MIMER/2021/761). Main leading cause of death in the present study was disease of circulatory system 868 (29.35%), followed by Neoplasm (16.54%) and Certain infectious and parasitic disease (16.44%). The present study showed incompletely and inaccurately filled MCCD forms. Therefore, adequate training and proper sensitization of the doctors regarding the usefulness of MCCD data is required.