ACCEPTANCE AND BARRIER OF ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS IN A TERTIARY HOSPITAL IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Purpose: This study assesses the performance, determine the barriers and effects of electronic health records on the staff of Obafemi Awolowo Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria. Method/Approach: This study was designed to explore the experiences of staff that practised a computerized or electronic health record in Obafemi Awolowo Teaching Hospital, Osun State, Nigeria (OAUTH). This study utilized a quantitative method. The study sample includes 10 respondents from the intensive care unit, 40 respondents from the health information department, 25 respondents from nurses and 25 respondents from the medical doctors of the hospital. The respondents were purposively selected and the instrument (questionnaire) was administered using the random sampling technique. Findings/results: This study showed that there is a high performance (80%) of EHR in the hospital. Most respondents (65%) opined that EHR is easy to use. The assessment of the respondents about the ability of EHR to reduce medical error revealed that about 75% said EHR will reduce medical error. In addition to this, about 80% of the respondents said EHR is important in the transmission of patient prescription. The barrier to the implementation of electronic health record includes an inadequate computer (50%), lack of uniform hospital standard (55%), start-up financial costs (60%) and training and productivity loss. Recommendation: The hospital management, federal and state government and non-governmental organizations should work together to remove all barrier to the implementation of electronic health records through the provision of computer systems, finance, stable electricity supply, man-power training and employment of adequate staff. Article visualizations: