Health care consumer’s perception of the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system within a referral hospital in Kigali, Rwanda

Abstract

Background: Worldwide Electronic Medical Records (EMR) when compared to a paper-based system has been proven to improve service delivering numerous health care facilities. However, no research has been described in the literature regarding the user’s perception of the clinical electronic medical record (EMR) system in Rwanda. The objective of this study is to evaluate the health care consumer’s perception of the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) OpenClinic regarding improving the quality of health care delivery within the hospital setting. How does the OpenClinic system affect the patients’ waiting time? How complete is the information obtained from OpenClinic as compared to paper medical records, and the level of satisfaction of the users of OpenClinic.

Method: A structured questionnaire was developed, validated and utilized in this quantitative research project. Quantitative data were collected from 170 participants while an interview guide was used to collect qualitative data from 6 key informants at a referral hospital in Kigali. The SPSS version 20.0 was used to analyze the quantitative data. The interviews transcribed verbatim; the data were thematically analyzed and categorized by pre-determined themes. Permission to conduct the study was approved from the ethics committee of the University of Rwanda, College of Health Sciences and the hospital.

Results: The majority of the participants were satisfied with OpenClinic, (90%), while only a few (10%) did not perceive any advantage of a computer-based EMR and preferred paper based records.

Conclusion: Openclinc EMR was seen to be an improvement in the data collection involving health care delivery in Kigali, Rwanda.

Keywords: Electronic Medical Records, OpenClinic and Perceptions