Page 1 of 11
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 01 Issue 09
October 2015
Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 334
Need for an Automated Hospital Information System to Improve the
Efficiency and Quality of Health Service Delivery in
Esan-West L. G. A., Edo State, Nigeria
John-Otumu Adetokunbo MacGregor1*
, Obahiagbon Kingsley2 & Eriata Ukhunamure3
1Computer & Multimedia Laboratory, Department of Banking & Finance, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Nigeria.
2Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Benson Idahosa University, Benin City, Nigeria.
3Department of Computer Science, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Nigeria.
*Corresponding Email: macgregor.otumu@gmail.com
Abstract
The manual or paper-based hospital
information system used by hospitals / health
centers for storing information about their in- patient and out-patient details, staff records,
doctors and nurses on duty, diagnostic results,
clinical trials, dispensing of drugs, and so on,
has created an inefficiency and poor health
service delivery in health sector. This paper
examines the need for the use automated
hospital information system in order to
improve the efficiency and quality of health
service delivery for hospitals/health centers in
Esan-West L.G.A, Edo State. Observations,
oral interviews and questionnaire
administration were used to gather data. The
study has shown that all the hospitals/health
centers in the local government area use
paper-based information system for their
storage, retrieval, making decisions, and so on
about their in-patients/out-patients
profile/health history and staff records. The
study also revealed that the current paper- based information system used by most
hospitals and health centers in the Local
Government Area, shows a lot of weaknesses in
its internal operations, and therefore
acknowledges the need for an Automated
Hospital Information System (AHIS) because of
its numerous benefits in order to improve the
efficiency and quality of health service delivery
of the hospitals and health centers.
Recommendations were given that both
government and private owned health facilities
i.e. hospitals and health centers should be
motivated by the government to see the need to
convert their operations to an AHIS, the
change to the AHIS should follow the level of
priority and government policy makers should
be made to enact a policy to ensure that the
system conversion is achieved.
Keywords: Esan-West L. G. A., Hospitals,
Automation, Hospital Information System,
Efficiency, Health Facilities, Quality of Health
Service.
1.0 Introduction
Automation plays an important role in the
global economy and in daily experience.
According to (wikipedia, 2013) automation has
been achieved by various means including
mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, electrical,
electronics and computers. Engineers strive to
combine automated devices with mathematical
and organizational tools to create complex
systems for a rapidly expanding range of
applications. An Automated Hospital
Information System (AHIS) is a computer
based hospital information system used to store
and manages patient information and its
Page 2 of 11
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 01 Issue 09
October 2015
Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 335
administration. It is meant to provide
management and staff, with information in
real-time to make their work more interesting
and less stressful in order to improve the
efficiency and quality of health service delivery
in the health sector.
The best introduction for hospital
information systems has been made in 2011
International Conference on Social Science and
Humanity, which defines Hospital Information
Systems as massive, integrated systems that
support the comprehensive information
requirements of hospitals, including patient,
clinical, ancillary and financial management.
Hospitals are extremely complex institutions
with large departments and units coordinate
care for patients. Hospitals are becoming more
reliant on the ability of hospital information
system (HIS) to assist in the diagnosis,
management and education for better and
improved services and practices. In health
organization such as hospitals, implementation
of HIS inevitable due to many mediating and
dominating factors such as organization, people
and technology. Hospitals offer 24 hours
services to its staff and the general public. The
records of patients in hospitals have over time
been run down due to large numbers of
patients; this led to poor record keeping since it
is a paper based system. Paper processing has
led to a variety of problems which includes;
duplication of data for in-patients and out- patients, data inconsistency, slow data storage
and retrieval, poor report generation, and so on.
According to Jantz (2001) the emergence of
computer based information system has
changed the world a great deal, both large and
small system have adopted the new
methodology by the use of personal computers;
to fulfill several roles in the production of
information therefore computerizing the
documentation of patient record to enable easy
manipulation of the input process and output
will bring us to this existing new world of
information system. Patients records and
disease pattern documentation is concerned
with documentation of information obtained
from patients and their particular health system
in order to function properly. If this
information is not documented perfectly, it
may cause some data to get lost, and hence, the
health system will not be efficient.
Tang (2001) examines the document
system that exist in hospitals to be mostly
manual, much importance has been placed on
creating a system that document the in-patient
record using a computerized database system
with a secure procedure for accessing it. Patient
information past and present is extremely vital
in the provision of patient’s care which guides
the physician in the making of right decision
about their diagnosis.
Objectives
The overall objective of this study is to find out
the need for an Automated Hospital
Information System to Improve the Efficiency
Page 3 of 11
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/index.php/JSMaP
e-ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 01 Issue 09
October 2015
Available online: http://internationaljournalofresearch.org/ P a g e | 336
and Quality of Health Service Delivery in
Esan-West L.G.A., Edo State. The specific
objectives are as follows:
1. To ascertain the number of wards in
Esan-West L.G.A., and the number of
hospitals/health facilities per ward.
2. To ascertain the current information
system used by hospitals and health
centers in Esan-West L.G.A.
3. To ascertain, if the health facilities, that
is, hospitals and health centers in Esan- West L.G.A. are contented with the
current information system in order to
determine the need for an automated
hospital information system (AHIS).
2.0 Literature Review
Hospitals are the main healthcare providers in
developing countries (Clifford, Blaya et al.
2008). For this reason hospitals ought to be the
primary target institutions when aiming to
improve health information systems in
developing countries. Hospitals differ in
numerous ways. An increasingly important
characteristic for distinguishing hospitals is
their generic strategy types. Eastaugh
(1992a,b), Ginn and Young (1992), Zajac and
Shortell (1989), and Shortel, Morrison, and
Friedman (1990), among others, have used the
Miles and Snow (1978) typology to categorize
hospital as Prospectors, Analyzers, and
Defenders, based on their strategic
characteristics.
However, electronic information
systems in hospitals in developing countries are
“rare to nonexistent” (Rotich, Hannan et al.
2003). In an environment where the awareness
and appreciation of electronic hospital
information systems (HIS) does not exist,
implementing an HIS would be a serious
challenge (Idowu, Cornford et al. 2008).
Against all odds, if a hospital in a developing
country did decide to transform its information
system and implement an HIS, there would be
surprisingly sparse literature on useful
experiences to guide that hospital through the
transformation. This is because literature on
“implementation” of hospital information
systems is extremely limited (Ovretveit, Scott
et al. 2007), and whatever literature is available
is predominantly from developed countries
where the circumstances, systems, processes,
and cultures are different from that of
developing countries.
3.0 Study Area
Esan West is a Local Government Area of Edo
State, Nigeria, created in 1991. Its headquarters
is in the town of Ekpoma. It has an area of
502 km2 and a population of 125,842 at the
2006 census. The postal code of the area is
310. Esan-West L.G.A., has the following
towns and villages: Ekpoma (Eguare, Ikhirolo,
Ukpenu, Ujoelen, Eguare, Emaudo,
Ebhuakhuala, Ujemen, Idemebo, Ihumudumu,
Iruekpen, Emuhi, Illeh, Uke), Egoro (Eguare-
