[Difficulties in quality of health evaluations in the context of an African hospital: experience of the Gynecology-Obstetrics Department of the National Hospital Center of Ouagadougou,Burkina Faso]

The quality of medical care was studied in the gyneco-obstetrical department of the National Hospital Center of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Evaluation covered not only facilities, procedures and results, but also patient satisfaction using standardized criteria. The results showed an apparent contradiction between poor facilities and high maternal and prenatal mortality rate on the one hand and proper use of procedures and good patient satisfaction on the other. Installation of a computerized medical record system should allow continuous monitoring of the quality of care in the context of a sub-Saharan hospital by providing ready access to simple standardized indicators especially of maternal and prenatal mortality.