ABSTRACT

Health IT systems have the capability to improve the health outcomes for the patient and thus augmenting quality and improving efficiency as well. Despite highlighting the importance of electronic medical record system in hospitals leading to more efficient and improved patient care, very little attention has been paid in this regard, both in private and public setups. Therefore, the present study was designed to assess and identify the issues related to health information system operational at primary care healthcare facilities in located in Pakistan. A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used to assess the district health information system at six primary care (3 rural health centers, 3 basic health units) from Islamabad and 35 primary care facilities (17 rural health centers and 18 basic health units) located in Rawalpindi district, Pakistan. Pre-validated data collection tools were used. Written permission had been obtained from Department of Health, South Africa and North–West University, South Africa. After data collection, data was cleaned, coded and entered in SPSS version 21. Desk PCs (n=20, 48.8%) were available for the management of health information system, while none of the facilities had tools for back up of data, color printers, scanners, projectors and photocopiers. Internet access was absent in 78% (n=32) of the facilities, email services were available in only 24.4% (n=10) of the total facilities, while 95.1% (n=39) of the facilities used manual files and books for storing data. Data was being analyzed manually in 90.2% (n=37) of the total healthcare facilities. Most of the respondents, 97.6% (n=40) reported that they did not have a district health information system at their facility and 87.8% (n=36) identified lack of administrative support as the major constraint in the health information data management. The present study concluded that health information system was almost not functional and up to the mark at primary healthcare level. Most of the primary healthcare setups were found non-operational. Stagnant adoption of these technologies in healthcare systems, difficulty in using or lacking technical skills to operate, systems are not fully interoperable and technology and capacity in terms of infrastructure and resources have been identified as major hindrance towards adoption of health information systems in Pakistan. Keywords: Health information system, human resource, training, primary healthcare facilities, Pakistan
Publication date: 01/12/2020

https://ijbpas.com/pdf/2020/December/MS_IJBPAS_2020_5269.pdf

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https://doi.org/10.31032/IJBPAS/2020/9.12.5269