Abstract
BackgroundE-health is an essential information sharing tool in healthcare management and delivery worldwide. However, utilization of e-health may only be possible if healthcare professionals have positive attitudes towards e-health. This study aimed to determine the relationships between healthcare professionals’ attitudes towards e-health, level of ICT skills and e-Health use in healthcare delivery in government and private hospitals in northern Uganda.MethodsCross-sectional survey design was used. Sixty-eight medical doctors in three government hospitals and four private hospitals in Northern Uganda participated in the study. A pretested self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the required data. Data was analysed using SPSS software Version 19.ResultsOut of the 68 respondents, 39 (57.4 %) reported access to computer and 29 (48.5 %) accessed Internet in the workplace. Majority of healthcare professionals had positive attitudes towards e-health attributes (mean 3.5). The level of skills was moderate (mean 3.66), and was the most important and significant predictor of ICT use among healthcare professionals (r = .522, p < .001); however, attitudes towards e-health attributes did not contribute significantly in predicting e-health use.ConclusionsThe findings suggest need for hospitals managements to strengthen e-health services in healthcare delivery in Northern Uganda.
Highlights
E-health is an essential information sharing tool in healthcare management and delivery worldwide
In deciding to adopt e-health in professional practice, individual healthcare professionals might consider the following issues: a) Can e-health improve healthcare delivery? b) Does e-health technology fit well with the needs and current practices of healthcare professionals? c) Is e-health technology easy to use and understand? d) Can e-health technology be tested or tried by healthcare professionals before making commitment to use it? e) Can individual healthcare professionals see the benefits of using e-health technology in professional practice at the workplace? [11, 15]
In addition to the five characteristics of innovation proposed by Rogers, we introduced healthcare professionals’ Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) skill in the model
Summary
E-health is an essential information sharing tool in healthcare management and delivery worldwide. This study aimed to determine the relationships between healthcare professionals’ attitudes towards e-health, level of ICT skills and e-Health use in healthcare delivery in government and private hospitals in northern Uganda. E-health is defined as the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in support of health to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare management and delivery [1]. E-health improves health surveillance, health system management, health decision making, standardised sharing of health information; and promotes equity in healthcare delivery [2,3,4,5]. In deciding to adopt e-health in professional practice, individual healthcare professionals might consider the following issues: a) Can e-health improve healthcare delivery? If an evaluation of the attributes of e-health leads to its approval, healthcare professionals might use the innovation to improve the quality of healthcare service delivery. In our model the level of ICT use by healthcare professionals was considered as the dependent variable
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