The role of electronic medical record in nation care delivery, development: case study on Ghana

Abstract

Electronic medical record (EMR) is not only being welcomed by health care providers as a way to improve care delivery, but also serves as a catalyst for development. The purpose of this study is to examine benefits of EMR and its ultimate contribution to development of health care delivery. Design: This is a qualitative, explorative, and descriptive study using survey questionnaires and a sample size of 50 at the Kole-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Ghana. Results: Results from the research indicates strong importance of EMR system in developing countries to facilitate effective and efficient data collection, data entry, information retrieval and report generation and research. However, developed nations are not doing enough to help developing countries implement modern technology necessary to facilitate care delivery. It also improves health care planning and decision making and disease management. Conclusions: To achieve the MDG number by 2015, developed nations must assist poor countries to develop their human capital, funds and work with the local community to design and implement system friendly with their environment to transform and improve care delivery development. KEY WORDS: Medical Records Systems, computerized, developing countries, information systems, hospital information systems.