Health Professionals’ Compliance with National Treatment Guidelines for Treatment of Severe Malaria in Children in Bolgatanga Hospital, Upper East, Ghana
Justina C. Zoyah, Africanus L. Diedong

Abstract
Despite the dramatic decline in malaria deaths on the African continent, malaria still kills some 660,000 people each year, most of them young African children. Ghana is currently implementing its new treatment policy for the treatment of uncomplicated malaria. According to the national standard treatment guidelines for malaria treatment, quinine is the drug of choice for complicated/severe malaria in both children and adults. The objective of the study was to investigate the level of health professionals’ compliance with the standard treatment guidelines in treating children under five years of age with severe malaria in Bolgatanga Municipality for year 2004 with the view to improving quality care. The research design was descriptive cross-sectional. It involved the analysis of documented in-patient cases, observation of health professionals practice at work, focus group discussions and interviews of a sample of staff in the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital. The main findings indicated that the level of compliance to the standard treatment guidelines by health professional in the hospital was 85%- 95% for diagnosis, treatment and supportive care. As regards the drug of choice quinine, the level of compliance was 2 %. There was evidence of high (85%-95%) level of compliance to some of the measuring indicators used in the study. The study recommended hospital management to ensure treatment guidelines are made available for use as well as provide regular in-service training, close monitoring and supervision of staff, and health promotion messages to patients and clients to maintain compliance level of staff and improve their performance levels with guidelines for quality care.

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