Background: Routine assessment of quality of care helps identify deficiencies which need to be improved. While gaps in the emergency care of children have been documented across sub-Saharan Africa, data from Rwanda are lacking.

Objective: To assess the care of sick infants and children admitted to Rwandan district hospitals and the extent to which it follows currently recommended clinical practice guidelines in Rwanda.

Methods: Data were gathered during a retrospective cross-sectional audit of eight district hospitals across Rwanda in 2012/2013. Medical records were randomly selected from each hospital and were reviewed to assess the process of care, focusing on the leading causes of under-5 mortality, including neonatal conditions, pneumonia, malaria and dehydration/diarrhoea.

Results: Altogether, 522 medical records were reviewed. Overall completion of a structured neonatal admission record was above 85% (range 78.6–90.0%) and its use was associated with better documentation of key neonatal signs (median score 6/8 and 2/8 when used and not used, respectively). Deficiencies in the processes of care were identified across hospitals and there were rural/urban disparities for some indicators. For example, neonates admitted to urban district hospitals were more likely to receive treatment consistent with currently recommended guidelines [e.g. gentamicin (OR 2.52, 95% CI 1.03–6.43) and fluids (OR 2.69, 95% CI 1.2–6.2)] than those in rural hospitals. Likewise, children with pneumonia admitted to urban hospitals were more likely to receive the correct dosage of gentamicin (OR 4.47, 95% CI 1.21–25.1) and to have their treatment monitored (OR 3.75, 95% CI 1.57–8.3) than in rural hospitals. Furthermore, children diagnosed with malaria and admitted to urban hospitals were more likely to have their treatment (OR 2.7, 95% CI 1.15–6.41) monitored than those in rural hospitals.

Conclusions: Substantial gaps were identified in the process of neonatal and paediatric care across district hospitals in Rwanda. There is a need to (i) train health care professionals in providing neonatal and paediatric care according to nationally adopted clinical practice guidelines (e.g. ETAT+); (ii) establish a supervision and mentoring programme to ensure that the guidelines are available and used appropriately in district hospitals; and (iii) use admission checklists (e.g. neonatal and paediatric admission records) in district hospitals.