Abstract:
The main objective of this study was to investigate the effect of electronic health records management on service delivery in Lusaka health centres. Specifically, the study opts to answer the questions; what proportion of health centres are using electronic records management systems? Do health personals prefer manual records management systems to electronic records management systems? What are the effects of e- records management on the time taken to deliver health services? What challenges do personals in charge of records management face in service delivery? Self-administered questionnaires were used to obtain data from health records personals in Lusaka health centres. The study targeted 60 health centres and 60 questionnaires were administered of which 48 were obtained back. Statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) was used in the analysis of the data obtained from the questionnaires.
The results showed that most health centres were still using manual records management systems. On the preference of electronic to manual records management systems the results showed that health personals preferred electronic records to manual records management systems. The results also showed that generally electronic records management systems reduce time taken to deliver service. When cross tabulated with gender, age and educational qualification the results showed that females were more efficient in delivering service, the people in the age range of 26-35 were more efficient than those in the other age ranges and that educational qualification improved service delivery respectively. The main challenges that records management staff faced as revealed by the results were low motivation, inadequate storage space, unsatisfactory salaries and other fringe benefits, lack of prospects of promotions, inadequate shelving and filing equipment and lack of electronic records management policy. It is important that every health centre comes up with motivational strategies such as rewards for excellent service provision by records management staff. The study recommended It was important that every heath centre private or public to ensure by all means to have a continuous supply of shelving and filing equipment such as file folders, clips etc., strive to migrate to electronic records management systems as they were found to be more preferred and more efficient and equitable prospects for promotion for all records management staff.
