Health information systems to improve health care: A telemedicine case study

Background: E-health has been identified as an integral part of the future of South Africanpublic healthcare. Telemedicine was first introduced in South Africa in 1997 and since thenthe cost of running the Telemedicine projects has increased substantially. Despite these effortsto introduce the system, only 34% of the Telemedicine sites in South Africa are functional atpresent.Objectives: Literature has suggested that one of the barriers to the successful implementationof health information systems is the user acceptance by health care workers of systems such asTelemedicine. This study investigated the user acceptance of Telemedicine in the public healthcare system in the Eastern Cape Province, making use of the Unified Theory of the Use andAcceptance of Technology.Method: The study employed a quantitative survey approach. A questionnaire was developedmaking use of existing literature and was distributed to various clinics around the provincewhere Telemedicine has been implemented. Statistics were produced making use of StatisticalPackage for the Social Sciences (SPSS).Results: In general, the health care workers did understand the value and benefit of healthinformation systems to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the health care system. Thebarriers to the effective implementation of a health information system include the lack ofknowledge and the lack of awareness regarding the Telemedicine system. This in turn meansthat the user is apprehensive when making use of the system thus contributing to less frequentusage.Conclusion: Health care workers do acknowledge that information systems can help to increasethe effectiveness of the health care system. In general, the acceptance of Telemedicine in theEastern Cape Department of Health is positive, but in order to integrate it into standard workpractices, more must be done with regards to the promotion and education of telemedicine.