Need Assessment Framework for Electronic Health Record Management System in Ethiopia
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Date
2012-07
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
BACKGROUND A standard in the field of Heath Informatics which has been taken for granted up until this point may be disappearing and a new paradigm may begin to take shape as paper-based medical record (PMR) systems are changing to the electronic health record (EHR) systems. Although the PMR has played a critical role in recording patient’s clinical information, now many studies report that EHR systems improve quality of care beyond PMRs. For this reason, the governments across the world have initiated various approaches accelerating EHR adoption. However, there have been a small number of studies explaining which factors affect EHR adoption and use in health institutions.
OBJECTIVE The objective of this study is to investigate the actual practice of patient’s health record handling throughout the health institutions in Ethiopia and see the gap between the paper based medical record and electronic health record and developing architectural framework for electronic health record.
METHOD The necessary data is collected using questionnaire and interview within and around Addis Ababa to get the overall picture of the health data record handling of health institutions like hospitals.
RESULT The result of the study disclosed that almost all health institutions are exercising paper based health record handling and extremely few institutions are using technological devices to handle some part of their records, like patient registration, together with paper based patient medical record which is highly subject to be misplaced, time taking and the like.
CONCLUSION Architectural framework for electronic medical record is a must to have to all health service providers in all levels in order to improve their performance and to provide up to the standard services to the community at large. The concerned management should provide the necessary attention to it. All health institutions should be ready to implement technology based facility which is believed to be a must to have.
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Electronic Health Record Management System in Ethiopia