Assessing Electronic Health Service of Bangladesh Government during COVID 19: A Cross-Sectional Mixed Method Survey

Abstract

The influx of COVID 19 has exposed the vulnerability of the health sector in both developing and developed countries. So, it has been crucial to assess the e-health service of the Bangladesh government during COVID 19. A cross-sectional mixed method survey was conducted where 150 participants took part in a closed-ended questionnaire survey and 10 participants were involved in a semi-structured interview. Participants are selected from urban (72%) and rural (28%) areas purposively who availed of e-health services during COVID 19. The study used SPSS version 25 to analyze quantitative data using descriptive statistics, frequency, mean, standard deviation, and variance. The result of the study exposed that the existing status of electronic health services in Bangladesh is not satisfactory yet. Most of the people (91.3%) accessed online vaccine registration services only. Due to the lack of information, participants are not availing rest of the e-health services of the government like telemedicine, COVID test report download, live corona test, and use of corona tracer app/ surokkha app. As a result, only 5.76% of participants are highly satisfied with the government e-health service during the pandemic. 56.88% responded that government had high-level challenges to promote electronic health services during COVID 19. The major challenges are lack of available e-health service information, awareness raising, and low level of internet speed. So, the study recommends bridging the digital divide between urban & rural areas along with ensuing more IT facilities in government health services.