To measure the quality of care for common disease conditions with clear standard treatment guidelines, the utilization of STGs in health facilities was assessed by checking whether the chosen tracer diseases had been treated according to the treatment schedules recommended in the STGs.

For this purpose, three disease conditions, namely, diarrhoeal disease in children (watery, non-bloody), non-pneumonia Acute Respiratory Tract Infection (ARTI) and mild/moderate pneumonia were chosen. The recommended treatments are: ORS for watery, non-bloody diarrhea; non - use of antibiotic for non-pneumonia ARTI and use of any of the first line antibiotics for Mild/Moderate pneumonia (Procaine Penicillin, Amoxicillin or Cotrimoxazole). The records of 30 out-patients (10 patients for each disease) treated in the facility were selected randomly from the records of the day prior to the survey; when the number of cases was insufficient, by going back one day at a time until 10 cases were found for each disease condition. The records of the thirty patients were examined to determine if the treatments complied with their respective recommendations in the STGs. Then, the percentage of cases treated according to STGs was calculated at facility level, regional level and national level.