Abstract:
The study aimed to assess Electronic Health Record systems' contribution to the performance
of healthcare service delivery. Mount Meru Referral Hospital in Arusha city was used as a
case study. The study was enthused by the fact that despite the adoption of EHR in
healthcare service delivery; service quality, information security and data integrity remain
challenging in healthcare facilities. The sample size of the study was 173 respondents who
involved cinical officers, doctors, nurses, the IT department and all other employees with direct
access to the EHR system. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected through
questionnaires and interviews and were analyzed using the SPSS computer program. In
addition, data were analysed using descriptive and Pearson correlation. Results showed that
all variables under investigation had a strong relationship. Most respondents strongly agreed
that 77.3% of health service delivery is explained by data accuracy and security, which are
essential facets that every EHR must consider. Additional results showed that most
respondents agreed that 79.1% of EHR information quality could improve health service
delivery. These results indicated that EHR improved the mode of service provision in terms of
quality and expertise of most medical doctors. However, service speed is affected by most
medical doctors' lack of computer skills and Health information management. On the other
hand, most respondents agreed that the system addresses patient information and stores
needs satisfactorily, and these EHR actively contribute 75.6% to ensuring accurate and
secure data storage and utilization. Furthermore, results showed that other respondents
strongly agreed that using the eHealth Record keeping system has improved daily information
management processes. The study concludes that system quality is essential in achieving
desirable outcomes when using hospital e-health systems. Information quality and security are
also crucial in ensuring patients get actual and reliable data about their health. The study
recommends that other governments and private hospitals adopt e-health recording systems
as it becomes easy to retrieve patients’ information and simplifies communications among
health experts. In addition, the IT experts that operate the e-health recording systems should
constantly get updates on the information systems and become conversant with the changes.
Finally, Hospitals’ Management must ensure that their staff that use the e-health recording
systems get as much training as possible. Frequent training will enable them to be competent
in using the e-health recording system technology
