To investigate, the effectiveness of smart care electronic management system for improved service delivery in Lusaka. A case study of selected Government health facilities, in Lusaka District.

Abstract

Electronic Health Records were created for service delivery in health institutions. They have the advantage over paper-based patient records in that, they are easy to use, retrieve information and have unlimited storage as well solve the problem of storage faced in the paper-based record system. As indicated in most studies, EHRs come with own challenges. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to investigate, the effectiveness of Smart Care Electronic Management System for improved service delivery in Lusaka. This was a case study of selected Government health facilities, in Lusaka District. The specific objectives of the study were; to find out if Smartcare Electronic Management System is delivering its intended purpose at the selected health care facilities in Lusaka; to determine whether the introduction of Smartcare Electronic Management System has helped to reduce on the number of medical errors at these health care facilities; to determine the effectiveness of Smartcare Electronic Management System on management of records at the selected health care facilities and to establish the challenges faced in using Smartcare Electronic Management System at the selected health care facilities. The study used both quantitative and qualitative method to collect and analyses data. 300 respondents were picked and using simple random sampling and 1 key-informant from each health centre using purposive sampling. The major findings revealed that EHRs are faster to use than paper-based records and saves filing space. Findings also showed that most respondents indicated that EHRs are cost effective in terms of time in that less time is spent by staff to access records and no time is wasted in queues to retrieve records compared to the paper-based. Findings also showed that most of respondents pointed out that the major medical problem reduced was that of loss of patient records and repeating of diagnostic tests. The major challenge pointed was that of electricity power outages which resulted in none usage of the system and it was recommended that back-up measures should be put in place such as procuring power generators. Finally, there is need too for other researchers to consider finding out whether all other institutions use EHRs as the selected health centres do and establish if the benefits and challenges are the same