Effective use of electronic health records system for healthcare delivery in Ghana

Abstract

Introduction: In the pursuit of improving effective health service delivery, developing nations including Ghana are progressively integrating electronic health record systems into healthcare frameworks. This research explored the proficient utilization of an EHR called the Lightwave Health Information Management System used by healthcare professionals in Ghana.Material and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study design and a multi-stage sampling technique (stratified and simple random sampling) were used to recruit 1126 respondents for this study. Weighted averages were computed to determine scores for all the indicators measuring the effectiveness construct.Results: The study found that LHIMS improved productivity, patient data gathering, sharing of patient information among service providers, care continuity, data exchange among facilities, decision-making, and coordination/organization of care. Also, health professionals’ work experience, educational qualification, and training status were statistically significant predictors of effective use of the LHIMS at the multivariate level. Age and professional type were statistically significant only at the bivariate level.Conclusion: The study concludes that incorporating the LHIMS improves healthcare professionals' effectiveness in gathering patient information while reducing the likelihood of errors by promptly notifying them of any inaccuracies. The study emphasized the importance of training for effectively using the LHIMS.