Assessment of digital health challenges in health facilities in Uganda: Case study: ST Catherine's hospital and Jinja regional referral hospital

Abstract

Globally, digital health has been seen as a viable strategy and enormous potential to provide effective service delivery, safe cost-effective, and scalable interventions to improve health and healthcare. Uganda has been adopting modern health technologies like Telemedicine, Electronic Medical Records Systems, and Medical Informatics etc. in order to improve health services delivery. However, implementation of such technologies has not been easy due to context differences like inadequate funding, computer illiteracy and lack of healthcare infrastructure. The analysis of literature unveils significant progress on the implementation of digital health services in various developing countries; however, the analysis paints a picture of little research in Uganda when it comes to the implementation of digital health services. This thesis discovers major challenges faced during the implementation process of digital health services and proposes appropriate solutions. The thesis adopted a quantitative methodology. Data was collected from two health facilities St Catherine’s hospital and Jinja Regional Referral hospital; one is private and the second is public respectively. The findings of this study are of paramount effect to effective use of Information and Communication Technology for better health outcomes of the Ugandan population and easy decision-making.