Browsing by Author "Mohammed, Hajira"

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    Evaluation of the Effect of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) on Workflow in Outpatient Department Comparative Study
    (Addis Abeba University, 2009-06) Mohammed, Hajira; Mitike, Getnet (MD, MPH)
    Background: Uncertainty in clinical decision making is due to lack of complete, accurate and well documented patient data. Electronic Medical Record (EMR) is expected to improve the delivery of health care services and facilitate informed decision. Objective: - the objective of this study is to determine the effect of EMR on workflow in outpatient department there by assessing its effect on waiting time, patient satisfaction, physician-patient relationship and confidentiality and compare it with the manual system. Method: - comparative cross sectional study design was employed using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The study was conducted in two private hospitals found in Addis Ababa namely Myungsung Christian Medical (MCM) center and Bethel Teaching General Hospital (BTGH). The calculated sample size for quantitative study was 768 (384 from each hospital) patients who were selected by systematic random sampling technique from OPD of each hospital. Qualitative data was generated from purposively selected physicians and front line workers (nurse, druggist, data clerks, etc) who have been working at OPD. The data was collected using structured questionnaire and semi-structured interview guide for the quantitative and qualitative methods respectively and analyzed using frequencies, percentages, mean, median, crude and adjusted odds ratio, P value of 0.05 was taken as a level of statistical significance. Result: The two hospitals were found to be comparable in almost all socio-demographic characteristics with the exception of age and religion. The mean waiting time for registration, service payment, searching MR etc in MCM were significantly lower than the time in BTGH. In addition, the overall mean satisfactions score of MCM 4.42 with SD=0.5 is relatively higher than that of BTGH (mean score 3.8 and SD=0.8). Regarding determinants of patient satisfaction, the presence of EMR, having knowledge about EMR, patient type and place of residence were found to have significant association with high level of satisfaction. In addition, waiting time has also association with level of satisfaction as the waiting time increases the level of satisfaction decreases. Conclusion and Recommendation: Electronic patient record handling significantly reduced the patient waiting time and increased patient satisfaction. Thus, promotion of the implementation of EMR both at private and government health institutions will lead to significant change in quality of care.