On Adoption and Use of Hospital Information Systems in Developing Countries: Experiences of Health Care Personnel and Hospital Management in Tanzania
Peltola, Johanna (2019)
Peltola, Johanna
2019
Master's Degree Programme in Human-Technology Interaction
Informaatioteknologian ja viestinnän tiedekunta - Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2019-12-17
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-201912176976
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-201912176976
Tiivistelmä
The use of health IT has become prevalent in hospitals across the world. Hospital information system (HIS) is the backbone of a modern hospital. It generally consists of several integrated modules covering distinct parts of administrative and clinical functions of a hospital, including inpatient and outpatient operations, human resources, electronic medical records (EMR), information on imaging, laboratory, and pharmacy. HIS can improve the operational performance of a hospital, and ultimately lead to better patient experience, improved health outcomes, and increased revenue for the hospital.
Developing countries have special challenges in adopting and using these systems, including low computer skills of personnel, substandard ICT infrastructure, and widely prevalent paper-based systems across hospitals. The government of Tanzania has recently implemented a national eHealth strategy to support the adoption of health IT. As a result, local health care facilities have started adopting hospital information systems, and decision-makers at hospitals need guidance on how to select an appropriate HIS.
As user experience is an important aspect of health IT affecting the adoption and use of these systems, we studied the perceptions of health care personnel and hospital management in regard to three hospital information systems, AfyaPro, Care2X, and GoTHoMIS, used in Tanzanian hospitals. The thesis consists of the qualitative user study and literature review of HIS adoption and use in developing countries. The thesis has been done in collaboration with Capacity Building of Tanzanian Health Information System project, a multi-stakeholder initiative consisting of partners in Finland and Tanzania. The project aims to build eHealth competencies in Tanzania.
The study found out that hospital information systems provide a myriad of quantifiable benefits to both hospitals and patients, but they still pose many challenges to the users. Automation, reduction in manual work, and tracking various hospital metrics were perceived as major benefits of HIS. However, hospital personnel’s lack of ICT skills, frequent power cuts, lack of necessary HIS integrations, and usability issues were perceived as challenges in HIS use. The main rationale for this thesis was to explore the user perceptions of HISs and to inform decision-makers in Tanzanian hospitals for selecting an appropriate hospital information system and guide HIS developers in creating better systems.
Developing countries have special challenges in adopting and using these systems, including low computer skills of personnel, substandard ICT infrastructure, and widely prevalent paper-based systems across hospitals. The government of Tanzania has recently implemented a national eHealth strategy to support the adoption of health IT. As a result, local health care facilities have started adopting hospital information systems, and decision-makers at hospitals need guidance on how to select an appropriate HIS.
As user experience is an important aspect of health IT affecting the adoption and use of these systems, we studied the perceptions of health care personnel and hospital management in regard to three hospital information systems, AfyaPro, Care2X, and GoTHoMIS, used in Tanzanian hospitals. The thesis consists of the qualitative user study and literature review of HIS adoption and use in developing countries. The thesis has been done in collaboration with Capacity Building of Tanzanian Health Information System project, a multi-stakeholder initiative consisting of partners in Finland and Tanzania. The project aims to build eHealth competencies in Tanzania.
The study found out that hospital information systems provide a myriad of quantifiable benefits to both hospitals and patients, but they still pose many challenges to the users. Automation, reduction in manual work, and tracking various hospital metrics were perceived as major benefits of HIS. However, hospital personnel’s lack of ICT skills, frequent power cuts, lack of necessary HIS integrations, and usability issues were perceived as challenges in HIS use. The main rationale for this thesis was to explore the user perceptions of HISs and to inform decision-makers in Tanzanian hospitals for selecting an appropriate hospital information system and guide HIS developers in creating better systems.