The Contribution of Electronic Health Record System on Health Care Service Delivery:

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