Illness and efficiency of health services delivery in a district hospital

Demographic data, medical problems and diagnosis, and efficiency of laboratory investigations and drug administration were evaluated in all patients admitted to an adult medical ward over a one month period at a district hospital in Kenya. The results show that the medical ward serves a poor, cosmopolitan population in the economically productive age range. Mental disorders (16%), symptoms and ill-defined conditions (16%), and infective and parasitic disease (15%) were the most common diagnoses. Out of 999 orders and/or results, 357 were delayed, interrupted, never done, or never received. Factors that affect medical education and efficiency of health services delivery at a district hospital are identified and discussed.