Utilization of Health Information System to Enhance Health Care Delivery in Nigeria

Abstract

Author(s): Ajobiewe, Damilola Nnamaka, Abiodun, Adedayo Isaac, Olaleye Solomon Babatunde

Access to patient and population health data enables health care administrators, physicians, and nurses to make important care choices. Health information systems are crucial to getting health data into the right hands as quickly as feasible. Quick access to a patient's medical history, for example, might reveal prior therapies. These technologies also make it easier for health-care practitioners to gather information on macro-environmental factors such as community health trends. A Health Information System (HIS) gathers and organizes information about people's health and how a healthcare system works. When HIS does not work well, it makes national planning and other management decisions in the health system less effective. Data quality and coordination in Nigeria would be improved if this research can help the federal ministry of health build a master facility list that can be used for data collection and storage. Nigeria's Health Information and Human Resources (HIR) system has not been effectively integrated, resulting in poor data quality, incomplete, inconsistent, and erroneous data, as well as a large backlog of unprocessed data and many databases. The inability to communicate data due to the absence of integration of disparate systems is critical. The causes behind the poor implementation of HIS in Nigeria are discussed in this study, along with how it might be utilized to enhance the health-care system