Evaluating the impact of ICT-tools on health care delivery in sub-Saharan hospitals.
This research explores to what extent Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-based information management methods can help to improve efficiency and effectiveness of health services in sub-Saharan hospitals and how clinical information can be made available for secondary use enabling non-redundant reporting of health- and care performance indicators. In the course of a 6 years research effort between 2006 and 2012, it was demonstrated that patient identification, financial management and structured reporting improved dramatically after implementation of well adapted ICT-tools in a set of 19 African health facilities. Real-time financial management metrics helped hospitals to quickly identify fraudulent practices and defective invoicing procedures. Out-patient case load significantly increased compared to the national average, average length of stay has been shortened in 15 of 19 health facilities and global hospital mortality decreased. Hospital workforce-evaluated impact of hospital information system implementation on local working conditions and quality of care was very positive. It was demonstrated that local sub-Saharan health professionals strongly believe in the importance of health information systems.
BISI: Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
Frank
F
Verbeke
Gustave
G
Karara
Marc
M
Nyssen
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002063:Burundi; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006747:Hospital Communication Systems / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008490:Medical Informatics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012432:Rwanda; D012984:Software; D012986:Software Validation; D013673:Technology Assessment, Biomedical; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data