The Adoption of Information and Communications Technology in the Administration of Health Insurance Schemes in Ghana (original) (raw)
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Assessment of health information system adoption : a case study of Ghana’s health service
2020
Globally, health information systems (HISs) have improved healthcare delivery in developed countries, yet despite the proven benefits, their implementation in many developing countries remains fragmented, failing to take into account existing infrastructure or human and logistical resources. This prompted the researcher to assess the benefits of using HISs in state-owned hospitals in Ghana. Using convergent parallel mixed method design, the study aimed to assess the HISs used in Ghana's teaching, regional, district and quasi-government hospitals, to enhance the delivery of healthcare services in resource-constrained environments. Data were collected using questionnaires, interviews and observation techniques. In total, 80 healthcare workers (doctors, nurses, health information officers and administrative staff) from ten hospitals across the country's northern, middle and southern geographical zones, were purposively and conveniently selected. The data from the quantitative study were analysed using frequencies and percentages, while thematic analysis guided the qualitative component. The findings showed that although all ten health facilities had different forms of HIS applications in place, minimal related training (mainly focusing on basic computer skills) was being given to healthcare workers. A notable benefit was the confidentiality of patient data, which were password protected. While deemed safe, the respondents acknowledged the need for more stringent user authentication. Another identified concern was that one HIS did not communicate with other internal HISs in the same hospital: the outpatient department, for instance, did not interconnect with systems in the dispensary or oncology, thereby impeding operations. While all hospitals in Ghana are regulated by the Ghana Health Service (GHS), data generated in one hospital cannot be accessed in another, meaning information is not easily transmitted, processed or stored elsewhere than where it is captured. Poor internet connectivity and electricity supply were also deemed to limit the hospital-wide use and adoption of HISs. The researcher proposed a Revised Health Information System Framework (R-HIS-F) to effect the interoperability and integration of health data and services across all hospitals in Ghana, through the GHS cloud service. The proposed R-HIS-F was validated by GHS experts, and certified as benefiting healthcare workers and improving healthcare delivery in Ghana.
2022
The current study focuses on information and communication technology (ICT) and healthcare facilities in Kogi State, Nigeria. This study specifically ascertains the effects and distribution of risk tolerance and costs respectively on the adoption of ICT in the public healthcare facilities in Kogi State. It also investigates the extent to which ICT adoption can influence the efficiency of public healthcare facilities. For this purpose, a survey design was employed. The study targeted 53 public healthcare facilities in Kogi State. A total of 229 health personnel actively participated in this study. Data were collected, presented, and analysed by using a frequency distribution table. Descriptive statistics and regression analysis were applied. The findings showed that both risk tolerance and cost have a significant predictive power regarding the adoption of ICT in the public healthcare facilities in Kogi State. Furthermore, ICT adoption has a substantial influence on the efficiency of public healthcare facilities. It was concluded that ICT could increase patient safety by providing easy information to medical cases, allowing for online treatment reviews, monitoring patient progress, and foreseeing potential medical mishaps. The study also recommends that the management and government organize an intervention programme to promote risk tolerance among users. Moreover, the government should provide financial support to reduce the cost burden in order to increase the adoption of ICT in public healthcare facilities in Kogi State.
Potentials of information communication technology adoption by health workers in nigeria
Dutse Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences , 2023
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been identified as a vehicle with the potential to improve the quality of health care systems as well as the efficiency of the health workers both in the developed and developing countries. Non-governmental organizations initiatives often fail in making use of ICT technology possibly due to lack of ICT knowledgeable and skilled personnel in the health sector. This study investigates the potentials of information and communication technology (ICT) adoption by health workers in Nigeria. Quantitative survey was used to collect data from randomly chosen health workers at Abdullahi Wase Specialist Hospital Kano in Nigeria. A total of 150 on-paper questionnaires were distributed among clinical and non-clinical staff and 140 (93.3%) questionnaires were collected and analysed using a modified technology acceptance model (TAM). The results showed that there is significant correlation between the knowledge (dependent variable) and perceive usefulness and perceive ease of use (independent variables) both at significant level of 0.05. This indicates that presence of prior computer knowledge and exposure has significant influence on health workers perceptions (perceive usefulness and perceive ease of use), overall attitude toward adoption and eventually usage of information and communication technologies. This indicates that knowledge and attitude scores of health workers in this study reflect progress despite the lack of institutional training. Keywords: Adoption, Clinical, Information Communication Technology, Non-Clinical, Potentials
Information Communication Technology Policy Analysis on Healthcare in Ghana
Scientific Journal of Health Science | Published by: Dama Academic Scholarly & Scientific Research Society, 2020
Health policy is defined as an agreement or consensus on the health issues, goals and objectives to be addressed, the priorities and the directions for achieving them (WHO, 1999). It is afforded a central role in the government’s agenda due to accounting for one of the largest areas of expenditure and the increasing pressure on the economic climate. The fundamental aim of health policy development is that it is able to be implemented, sustainable and useful in practice to the people who are in receipt of it. The translation of policy to practice is paramount for it to be worthy of attention (Buse, et al, 2005). Health policy is also referring to decisions, plans, and actions that are undertaking to achieve specific healthcare goals within a society (WHO, 2016). An explicit health policy can achieve several things: it defines a vision for the future which in turn helps to establish targets and points of reference for the short and medium term. It outlines priorities and the expected roles of different groups; and it builds consensus and informs people. The National Health Service (NHS) was established to provide a comprehensive service with an egalitarian ideology: “We start with our values – the values of a health service funded by all of us, available to each of us, free at the point of treatment, with care based on our need and not our ability to pay. These egalitarian values seem to be echoed by both major parties when they have been in power but within a competitive market which has given rise to numerous concerns regarding the ‘selling off’ of the NHS to the private sector; e.g. the use of private contractors (Arie, 2005) and privatization plans (Carvel, 2006).
Adoption and Utilization of ICT in Nigeria Hospitals (Government Owned)
2013
Date of presentation Degree programme Author or authors Lekan Oyegoke Group or year of entry 2009 Title of thesis Adoption and Utilization of ICT in Nigeria Health sector (Government Owned) Number of report pages and attachment pages 37 + 2 Thesis advisor(s) Markku Pispa Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is growing rapidly in Nigeria and has had a great effect on businesses and individuals. We can easily say ICT has not penetrated everywhere in the society. Nigeria comprises of 36 states and it is located in the western part of Africa. Nigeria has a population of about 158 million people. The three tiers (federal, state and local) of government share the responsibilities of providing adequate health services to the people. This thesis will focus on why Nigeria Health sector have not being using ICT in their various health centers. The focus of the thesis is to transform from the paper based approach to electronic health records that will fasten data collection from mult...
The study investigated the application of ICT for health information management (HIM) in the health facilities and the proficiency of the health workers in the geopolitical east zone of Ogun State. The study adopted a non experimental survey method where selfstructured questionnaires were administered to four hundred and fifty (450) health workers in the zone through a multi-stage sampling technique and frequency/percentage distributions were used to analyze the data obtained. Four hundred and twenty (420) (95.6%) health workers always use the ICT (e-mail, text messages, phones calls) for communication, followed by usage of ICT for research activities, where 345 (76.67%) use the ICT and 105 (23.33%) rarely use the ICT for research work, then the results revealed that 315 (70%) health workers always collaborate with the colleagues with the aid of ICT. The use ICT for HIM (data /records management and medical diagnosis) is relatively lower among the health workers-50 (11%) health workers use ICT for Data/Record Management while 30 (6%) use ICT for medical diagnosis. On the other hand, the average of results on the proficiency of the health workers indicated that only 35 (7.78%) of health workers are proficient, 98 (21.78%) not proficient and 321 (71.23%) were indifferent to computer system for HIM and not show interest with the computer system-the majority of the health workers are within the lower cadres where paper based systems are commonly used for health information sharing and management. The government should then equip/ implement ICT resources/ application in all the health facilities, making ICT training compulsory for the health workers and computerize the activities of the health facilities where information can be shared easily for efficient healthcare delivery system.
The State of Information and Communication Technology and Health Informatics in Ghana
Online Journal of Public Health Informatics, 2012
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become a major tool in delivery of health services and has had an innovative impact on quality of life. ICT is affecting the way healthcare is delivered to clients. In this paper, we discuss the state of ICT and health informatics in Ghana. We also discuss the state of various relevant infrastructures for the successful implementation of ehealth projects. We analyse the past and present state of health informatics in Ghana, in comparison to other African countries. We also review the challenges facing successful implementation of health informatics projects in Ghana and suggest possible solutions.
An Empirical Study of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in the Nigerian Health Sector
Computational Methods and Algorithms for Medicine and Optimized Clinical Practice, 2019
This study focuses on the assessment of different ICT tools used by Nigerian health workers. Structured questionnaires were used to collect information from 106 respondents. The questionnaire consists of 5 sections, namely: demographics, extent of use of ICT, tasks and activities carried out with ICT, the year of adoption of ICT. Descriptive statistics tools were used for data summarization and visualization. The results showed that the ICT devices were more commonly used among females than male medical personnel which were most common among the age group of 26-30 years and were nurses and doctors with less than 5 years' experience. The earliest ICT tool adopted was the PC in 1994 followed by mobile phones and search engines in 1996 and the projector in 2001. A majority of the health workers used ICT for administrative functions followed by research and personal work. ICT majorly impacted ICT by promoting collaboration among physicians, quicker medical diagnoses of diseases, inc...
This study examined the extent of use and factors influencing continued usage of recently adopted ICT-based innovations in the primary healthcare sector in Southwestern Nigeria. The study covered 30 registered primary healthcare centres selected from Lagos, Ogun and Oyo States in Southwestern Nigeria using multistage sampling technique. Data were obtained using two sets of questionnaire along with interviews. The results showed 12 distinct types of ICT-based innovations recently adopted for use. These are; computer, phone and tracker, digital weight scale, centrifuge, nebulizer machine, digital blood pressure apparatus, digital thermometer, solar refrigerator, oxygen concentrator, digital microscope, Electronic Contraceptives App and DBS Fax result printer. Challenges of power supply and lack of technical skills by the healthcare professionals limited the use of some of the ICT-based innovations. Furthermore, the results showed that academic (F = 10.113, p<0.05) and professional qualifications (f = 0.698, p<0.05) were factors that influenced the implementation of the adopted ICT-based innovations. The study concludes that academic and professional training expose healthcare professionals to continued implementation of ICT-based innovations. Thus, healthcare professionals with higher professional qualifications should be given preference for employment. Otherwise, staff should be encouraged to acquire higher academic and professional qualifications. In addition, alternative sources of power should be provided to primary health Care centers.