Knowledge of electronic medical records system among frontline health care workers in Jos University teaching hospital, Plateau State Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Electronic Medical Records system (EMRs) in any healthcare system has the potential to transform healthcare in terms of saving costs, reducing medical errors, improving service quality, increasing patients’ safety, decision-making, saving time, data confidentiality, and sharing medical. Evidence on the current state of EMR system in Nigeria health system particularly its knowledge among health professionals is limited. Hence, this study was conducted to assess the level of knowledge EMRs among frontline health care workers in a tertiary health institution in Jos, Plateau State.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted between April and August 2019 among 228 frontline health care workers in Jos University Teaching Hospital using quantitative method of data collection. SPSS version 20 was used for data analysis and a p-value of ≤ 0.05 considered statistically significant.Results: The mean age of the respondents in this study was 35 ± 8 years with 93 (40.8%) being 36 years and above. The overall level of knowledge of EMRs was adjudged to be good among 163 (71.5%) of the participants. Category (pharmacists) of the respondents was found to influence good knowledge of EMRs (OR = 1.37; 95% CI = 1.007 – 1.865; p = 0.045).Conclusions: This study has demonstrated a relatively high level of good knowledge of EMRs with variation existing along the categories of health care workers bringing to light the existence of a good knowledge base in the light of future EMRs implementation.

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

“…Another possible explanation for this result was that they might be more aware of the challenges of paper-based medical record system such as lack of storage space, medical errors, patient's safety and data confidentiality. A study carried out among the healthcare workers in Nigeria reported that the duration of services was not associated with the knowledge on EMRs [35].…”

Health Information Technologies in a Resource‐Limited Setting: Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Health Professionals

“…Since those who know telemedicine well might not necessarily know the whole of HITs', there might be a gap in the overall knowledge levels. Similarly, a 2020 study in the Plateau State of Nigeria found that 71.5% of health professionals who worked at the frontline had good level of knowledge [ 27 ]. This is supported by a 2016 study among health professionals working at teaching hospitals in Puducherry Union Territory, India, which found that 41% had good level of knowledge which is higher than the current study's finding [ 28 ].…”

Barriers to the Digitization of Health Information: A Qualitative and Quantitative Study in Kenya and Lao PDR Using a Cloud-Based Maternal and Child Registration System

“…This study adopted a mixed-method research approach using qualitative and quantitative measures to determine barriers in digitizing health information in Kenya and Lao PDR heuristically [17,18]. According to the methodology applied in previous studies, we heuristically identified the barriers or obstacles for digitalizing health information from qualitative data analyses of in-depth interviews; then, we quantitatively validated the identified issues and detected additional other issues that could not be identified by qualitative analyses using registered data in parallel [19][20][21][22][23].…”