Utilization of Electronic Medical Record and Associated Factors Among Health Professionals in Public Health Facilities With Service Delivery, Eastern Ethiopia

Abstract

Backgroundadoption of electronic medical record (EMR) systems in the healthcare delivery has the potential to transform healthcare in terms of saving costs, reducing medical errors, and data quality. However, even if a lots of efforts in the use of electronic health records, such systems have not been implemented and used at expected scale. Thus, his study assessed utilization of electronic medical record and associated factors among health professionals in Eastern Ethiopia.Methodsan institutional based analytic cross sectional study was conducted among randomly selected 412 health professionals from Harari and Dire Dawa, eastern Ethiopia using self-administered questioner. Binary logistic regression was performed for each independent variable against outcome variables (EMR utilization) to estimate the crude and adjusted odds ratio with 95% Confidence interval. P value less than 0.05 was used to declare statistical significance.Resultsa total of 412 health professionals from different category and educational level with mean age of 29 year (± 6.4 years) were interviewed. Majority of respondents were from Harari region (70.4%). A total of 229 (55.6%) and 300 (72.8%) of health professionals had good knowledge and attitude towards EMR for health facilities. About 279 (67.7%) reported that they use EMR in their facility currently with (54%) use it on daily basis. A total of 272(66%) of respondents reported to prefer EMR instead of paper based system. Health professional with more than five years’ experience had two times higher odds for using EMR (AOR = 2.22; 95% CI; 1.12–4.42) than early career workers (0–2 years of experience. Having previous EMR training were significantly more to use EMR (AOR = 5.88; 95% CI; 2.93–11.88) as compared to those who did not take training. In addition, having good knowledge (AOR = 1.52; 95% CI; 0.92–1.5) and good attitude on EMR system (AOR = 2.4; 95% CI; 1.35–4.31) had 50% and 140% more odds to use EMR in their facility.Conclusion and recommendationsutilization of EMR was found to be optimal and age, work experience, knowledge, attitude and training were positively associated with use of EMR in their facility. There should be organizational support, more specifically making the system full functional and targeted, timely, effective training packages for health professionals to improve their skills and attitudes.

Willingness to use electronic medical record (EMR) system and its associated factors among health professionals working in Amhara region Private Hospitals 2021, Ethiopia

“…Despite differences among study participants, experience and availability of computerized EMR training were significantly associated. Health professionals who had trained in EMR systems were more likely to be willing to use the EMR system as compared to those who had not trained in any EMR systems before, and this is in line with other findings [ 8 , 18 , 20 – 22 ], which are explained by the evidence that training and education usually change people’s views, willingness, knowledge, and skills on EMR systems [ 15 ].…”

“…This may be because health professionals with good knowledge tend to accept the advantages of technology and are more likely to be willing to use the EMR system. As discussed in other studies [ 8 , 18 , 19 ], health professionals who have good knowledge of the EMR system are more likely to be willing to use the EMR system than their counterparts or those who have poor knowledge of the EMR system. This is also a good explanation for the need to create awareness and strengthen continuous capacity building among less knowledgeable health professionals to narrow the knowledge gaps found about the EMR systems so that they will have a good willingness to use EMR and develop their knowledge for better use of the EMR system.…”

Health professionals’ readiness to implement electronic medical recording system and associated factors in public general hospitals of Sidama region, Ethiopia

“…This could be explained by the fact that professionals could likely be willing to use the system if they have a favorable and positive image with good interest towards the system. Previous studies had also shown that health professional’s attitude affects not only their readiness but also the actual utilization of the system [ 22 ]. The finding is also supported by qualitative study results.…”

Healthcare providers’ readiness for electronic health record adoption: a cross-sectional study during pre-implementation phase

“…In Ethiopia, studies had been carried out on knowledge, attitude, willingness, and acceptance of electronic records [18,25,[55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62]. To the best of the researcher's knowledge, very few studies were conducted on the readiness of electronic medical records (EMRs) at purposively selected primary health facilities in northwest Ethiopia which showed the level of readiness was 54.1% [63] and 62.3% [64].…”