Information Communication Technology Strategies and Service Delivery in Private Hospitals in Bomet County, Kenya

Abstract

Due to an ever increasing number of healthcare facilities across Kenya, the quality of healthcare service being given to patients has become a key factor that has led to huge performance gap among the existing private healthcare facilities. Healthcare facilities across the world are now putting service delivery quality as a priority towards enhancing patients’ satisfaction. This study will boost the existing body of knowledge by examining the relationship between Information Communication Strategies and service delivery in private hospitals within Bomet County, Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were: to evaluate the effect of electronic health records; to determine the effect of telemedicine; to establish the effect of mobile health as well as to assess the effect of wearable health technologies on service delivery. The study will also benefit Information Communication Technology service providers as well as healthcare service recipients. This study was guided by four theories namely; Information Theory, Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology and Actor-Network-Theory and SERVQUAL model. The respondents were staff of the selected Hospitals. The study population comprised of two private hospitals namely; Tenwek and Kaplong mission hospitals with total target population of 720 hospital staff. Descriptive research design and explanatory approach was used in the study. Self-administered Questionnaires were used as principal data collection instruments which were administered to the staff of the selected hospitals by the researcher. Users of Information Communication Technology in the selected population was stratified in order to respond to the questionnaires. The analysis of the collected data was done by use of descriptive and inferential statistics aided by the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 25.0.0.0).To test the extent to which Information Communication Technology explains any change in service delivery in private hospitals, coefficient of determination (R2) was calculated and found to be 0.900. A p-Value of 0.000 was found at 0.05 level of significance indicating that there is significant positive relationship between Information Communication Technology strategies. Findings show that the use of electronic health records, telemedicine, mobile health and wearable health technology strategies in private hospitals improves service delivery. The study recommends that private hospitals managements should employ more Information Communication Technology strategies which should include buying equipment and installing infrastructures that is necessary in treatment and management of chronic illnesses affecting patients. The study concludes that the use of electronic health records, telemedicine, mobile health and wearable healthcare technologies facilitate effective and efficient delivery of healthcare service delivery. This study recommends that other healthcare Information Communication Technology innovations not covered by this study should be investigated. Further comparative studies should target patients in order to make an informed conclusion on the overall effect of Information Communication Technology strategies on healthcare service delivery.