Electronic records organization, accessibility and utilization in public healthcare institutions in Kano metropolis

Abstract

This study explored Records Organization, Accessibility and Utilization in Public Healthcare Institutions (PHIs) in Kano Metropolis. The objectives were to find out the procedures used for organizing the electronic records (ERs) in PHIs under study; to find out the extent e-records are accessibility in PHIs under study, the purpose for which the e-records are utilized by the PHIs and to find out the challenges associated with the organization, accessibility, and utilization of e-records in PHIs in Kano Metropolis. Qualitative research methodology was adopted for the study using narrative based-design. Structured interview with open-ended questions was used as instrument for data collection and the population of the study consist of eighty-four (84) participants from nineteen (19) PHIs in Kano Metropolis out of which fifteen (15) participants from ten (10) PHIs were purposively sampled. The data was collected by conducting interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis with open coding. The findings of the study revealed that the PHIs under study use folder, database and metadata to organize their e-records, access to ERs was enabled via different units and also utilized ERs for clinical purposes. Likewise, the challenges associated with the organization, accessibly and utilization of ERs were duplication of effort, lack of skilled manpower and poor network among others while the measures to overcome the challenges were found to be effective network performance, provision of anti-virus, training and retraining of staff etc. The study concluded that PHIs organized, accessed and utilized their ERs with few lapses and recommended training and retraining of staff among others.