Health professionals’ readiness and its associated factors to implement Telemedicine system at private hospitals in Amhara region, Ethiopia 2021

Abstract

Introduction In resource-limited settings incorporating the Telemedicine system into the healthcare system enhances exchanging valid health information for practicing evidence-based medicine for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases. Despite its great importance, the adoption of telemedicine in low-income country settings, like Ethiopia, was lagging and increasingly failed. Assessing the readiness of health professionals before the actual adoption of telemedicine is considered the prominent solution to tackle the problem. However, little is known about Health professionals’ telemedicine readiness in this study setting. Objective Accordingly, this study aimed to assess health professionals’ readiness and its associated factors to implement a Telemedicine system at private hospitals in North West, Ethiopia. Materials and methods An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted from March 3 to April 7, 2021. A total of 423 health professionals working in private hospitals were selected using a simple random sampling technique. Multi-variable logistic regression was fitted to identify determinant factors of health professional readiness after the other covariates were controlled. Result In this study the overall readiness of telemedicine adoption was 65.4% (n = 268) [95% CI:60.1–69.8]. Knowledge (AOR = 2.5;95% CI: [1.4, 4.6]), Attitude (AOR = 3.2;95% CI: [1.6, 6.2]), computer literacy (AOR = 2.2; 95% CI: [1.3, 3.9]), computer training (AOR = 2.1;95% CI: [1.1, 4.1]), Computer skill (AOR = 1.9;95% CI: [1.1, 3.4]), computer access at office (AOR = 2.1;95% CI: [1.1, 3.7]), Internet access at office (AOR = 2.8; 95% CI: [1.6, 5.1]), Own personal computer (AOR = 3.0; 95% CI: [1.5, 5.9]) and work experience (AOR = 3.1; 95% CI: [1.4, 6.7]) were significantly associated with the overall health professionals readiness for the adoption of telemedicine using a cut point of p-value lessthan 0.05. Conclusion and recommendation Around two-thirds of the respondents had a good level of overall readiness for the adoption of telemedicine. The finding implied that less effort is required to improve readiness before the implementation of telemedicine. This findings implied that respondents who had good knowledge and a favorable attitude toward telemedicine were more ready for such technology. Capacity building is needed Enhance computer literacy, and computer skills building their confidence to rise ready for such technology. Building their capacity through training, building good internet connection, and availability of computers, where the necessary measures to improve Telemedicine readiness in this setting. Additionally, further studies are recommended to encompass all types of telemedicine readiness such as organizational readiness, technology readiness, societal readiness, and so on. Additionally, exploring the healthcare provider opinion with qualitative study and extending the proposed study to other implementation settings are recommended to be addressed in future works. The study has a positive impact on the successful implementation and use of telemedicine throughout hospitals at countries level by providing pertinent information about health professionals’ preparedness status. Therefore, implementing telemedicine will have a significant contribution to the health system performance improvement in terms of providing quality care, accessibility to health facilities, reduction of costs, and creating a platform for communication between health professionals across different health institutions for providing quality patient care.

Awareness and readiness of mental healthcare providers to implement telemental health services and associated factors at public referral hospitals in Addis Ababa City, Ethiopia

“…In this study, compared with healthcare professionals who had access to computers at their workplaces, mental healthcare practitioners who did not were 96% less likely to prepare for telemental health services. This result is in line with the findings of a study carried out in Ethiopia, which found that medical personnel who had access to computers in their workplaces were around 2.1 times more prepared for the telemedicine system than those who did not 30. This result is consistent with a previous study on the readiness of medical professionals to use telemedicine conducted in Lebanon, which found that study participants with access to a computer at work were more likely to be prepared to use telemedicine than study participants with limited computer access 53.…”

“…When compared with healthcare professionals who had received training in telemedicine application, mental healthcare providers were almost 99% less likely to prepare for telemental health services. This finding is in line with a study conducted in Ethiopia where participants who had a good understanding of telemedicine were around 2.5 times more likely to be prepared for a telemedicine system than medical professionals who had a poor understanding of telemedicine 30. This is in line with a study done in Libya which postulated that health professionals who had taken e-health technology-related training were more ready for the telemedicine system as compared with their counterparts 55…”

“…Majority of the healthcare professionals in this study (77.97%; 95% CI 73.9%, 81.9%) were ready to implement telemental health services. This is higher than that of a study on the readiness of healthcare professionals to implement telemedicine systems at private hospitals in the Amhara region, which found that just 65% of healthcare professionals were prepared to implement telemedicine 30. The finding is also higher than the result of the study conducted in Nigeria, which reveals 33% of average readiness,44 and the result of the study conducted on the readiness of healthcare providers to use telemonitoring at teaching hospitals in Ethiopia, where only 25.1% of healthcare providers showed an average or moderate readiness towards telemonitoring 32.…”

“…In this study, health professionals’ readiness was measured by a set of 17 questions. Participants who scored the mean and above were considered ready, while participants who scored below the mean were considered not ready 30. This study used participants’ responses of their structural, engagement and core readiness towards using telemental health services to assess healthcare providers’ readiness to use telemental health services.…”

Knowledge of telemedicine and its associated factors among health professional in Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Ethiopia’s Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) is creating a national e-health plan that will include cutting-edge technologies that shift the health industry, advance scientific knowledge of health-related issues, and improve communication between patients and healthcare providers [ 12 ]. Innovative technologies like telemedicine affect both the advancement of medical care and the way of delivering healthcare services [ 13 ]. Telemedicine is the use of electronic and information communication technologies to provide a virtual environment that enables remote interaction between healthcare professionals and their patients, and/or among healthcare professionals themselves [ 6 , 14 ].…”