Using the Spatial Quality and Anomalies Diagnosis (SQUAD) Tool to Identify and Correct Data Anomalies in Master Facility Lists: Global Operational Guide
ms-18-146-en.pdf
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Author(s): John Spencer and Becky Wilkes
Year: 2018
Abstract:A master facility list (MFL) is a catalog of health facilities that helps Ministry of Health officials know the name of each facility, where each one is located, and other important information. The MFL facilitates service delivery planning and helps locate health facilities near the populations who need them. Ensuring that the data in the MFL are correct—and identifying and troubleshooting errors—are critical but problematic, because the database has thousands of records and the use of a geographic information system (GIS) is required to check the location of each facility.
MEASURE Evaluation, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), created the Spatial Quality and Anomalies Diagnosis (SQUAD) Tool to assess data quality issues in these large data sets. The tool performs a data quality check on the data set, rapidly and automatically looking for anomalies in the data that need to be investigated.
This document is a resource for developing an action plan to improve data in an MFL through the use of the SQUAD Tool. It provides detailed instructions on how to prepare the data for use with the tool and how to run the SQUAD Tool with a typical country MFL. It also provides recommendations on specific steps to follow to prioritize actions and resolve errors found in the output list provided by the tool.
The status of health facilities is always changing as new health facilities come into existence and others close or move. Because of the dynamic nature of the MFL, it is recommended that the SQUAD Tool be regularly used, in line with the local MFL governance policy.
Access additional SQUAD resources.
