Evaluation of Mobile Phone Usage in Patient Management: The Case of Igabi Public Health Facilities, Nigeria (original) (raw)

This study evaluated mobile phone usage in the health facilities in Igabi local government Nigeria. The study was guided by the following research objectives: i) to establish the usage of mobile phone applications in the health facilities in Igabi local government, Nigeria; and ii) to assess the factors hindering mobile phone application usage in the health facilities in Igabi local government, Nigeria. This study used cross-sectional survey design and a target population of 325 participants. Sample size of 179 respondents was computed using Slovene's formula. The main research instrument was questionnaires. Data was analyzed using frequency and percentage tables. The findings showed that mobile phones were mainly used in health sector of For texting messages(83%),For making calls(66.9%),For video charting(61.5%),For taking photos of different medical related output(87.2%),,Patient Monitoring(43.5%),Medical Education and Training(42.6%),Information management(30.4%),Time management (56.1%) and ,Emailing (59.5%). The results cited the following as major challenges of using mobile devices in health sector. Anxiety(42.6%),Ignorance/lack of knowledge/training (43.9%),Expensive(60.8%),Social influence (52.7%),Poor network for smartphones(54.7%),Privacy and security issues(50.7%)No common digital format for storing patient data.(45.3%),Technical challenges(47.3%). The study recommended that the health sector since the patients are not ignorant on the use of mobile devices (34.9%), the health sector should work on the technical challenge, network for smartphones and integration of different systems.