Health providers’ readiness for electronic health records adoption: A cross-sectional study of two hospitals in northern Ghana

Abstract

Introduction Electronic Health Records are receiving considerable attention as a valuable tool for managing clinical information. Despite the prospects of Electronic Health Records in developing countries, many pre-implementation assessments target organizational, managerial, and infrastructural readiness, but barely include a detailed examination of health provider readiness. Meanwhile, health provider readiness is a critical success factor for electronic health records in settings where the majority of the workforce is less likely to have basic computer skills. We sought to assess the readiness of health providers for electronic health records in Ghana. Materials and method An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 350 health providers in northern Ghana from June-September 2019. Data were collected using a modified questionnaire on provider readiness. The mean overall readiness was calculated for each respondent. Providers with readiness score below the overall mean score were categorized as not being ready while those at or above the mean score were considered ready. Multiple linear regression was conducted to determine the factors that determine provider readiness. Results Two hundred and nine health providers responded to the questionnaire (59.7 response rate). The mean overall readiness was 3.61 (SD = .76), mean core readiness was 3.74 (SD = .80), and mean engagement readiness was 3.47 (SD = .67). Using the average overall readiness score as the cutoff for determining being ready and not ready for electronic health records, overall readiness was 54.9%, core readiness was 67.2%, while engagement readiness was 43.1%. Age, sex, old employees compared to new employees, computer literacy, and knowledge of electronic health records were significant determinants of health providers' readiness to adopt electronic health records.

Information and communication technology literacy, knowledge and readiness for electronic medical record system adoption among health professionals in a tertiary hospital, Myanmar: A cross-sectional study

“…This could be expected that the health professionals with high knowledge on EMRs might have more utilization of computer which was related to familiarity with the ICT and more interest in the adoption of the system. This finding remained as a significant predictor after performing multivariable logistic regression analysis, and it was consistently in line with the studies conducted in Ethiopia [10,34], Myanmar [20] and Ghana [41] showed that the knowledge on EMRs was associated with the health professionals' readiness for EMRs adoption.…”

“…In contrast to other studies, overall health professionals' readiness was higher than the study conducted in Myanmar (47.1%, with core readiness 62.2% and engagement readiness 63.0%) [20]. This result seemed to be consistent with other studies done in Ethiopia (54.1%, with core readiness 67.8% and engagement readiness 60.9%) [10], Ghana (54.9%, with core readiness 67.2% and engagement readiness 43.1%) [41] and Iran (56.0%) [33]. However, it was lower than the previous another study conducted in Ethiopia (62.3%, with core readiness 66.2% and engagement readiness 65.2%) [34].…”

“…This is a logical finding that health professionals with higher educational levels might have more ability to afford to learn ICT and willingness to adopt the EMRs for an effective healthcare system. This observed association persisted after adjusting the confounding variables, however, a similar study conducted in northern Ghana showed that the education of the health professionals was not associated with readiness for EMRs adoption [41]. This might be associated with the differences in sociodemographic background and the rate of distribution of ICT accessibility in the study population.…”

Adoption rates of electronic health records in Turkish Hospitals and the relation with hospital sizes

“…Measuring country-wide EHR adoption is becoming widespread in the literature. Not only developed and developing countries, low-and middle-income countries such as Kenya [74] and Ghana [75] are also measuring their EHR adoption level. There are several models used in those studies.…”

“…These studies showed that the proportion of US hospitals having comprehensive EHR functions was 25.5% in 2014, 34.1% in 2015, and 39.1% in 2017. Similarly, the proportion of hospitals having at least basic EHR functions was 58.9% in 2014, 75.2% in 2015, and 80.5% in 2017.…”