Examining the Impact of Implementation of Electronic Health Record System for Effective Health Management in Katsina State Hospitals, Nigeria

The medical records in use in the state are still paper based records, which make it very difficult when searching patient records due to the large population. The objectives of this research are four fold: 1) To identify the steps needed for the implementation of EHR; 2) To highlight the problems of EHR implementation; 3) To determine the resources needed, 4) To identify the advantages of EHR implementation in Katsina state as a case study. This is an Exploratory Research using a Quantitative method. SPSS (version 22.0) was used to analyze the data. Cluster sampling was used, sample size was 331. Data was collected from the seven pilot hospitals of Katsina state, Nigeria. A close ended questionnaire (likert type 5 point scale) was used to collect the data, of the three hundred and thirty one participants (331), 60 were doctors, 92 nurses, 38 Pharmacists, 26 lab-technicians, 69 record keepers, and 46 others. Based on their responses majority of the respondents strongly endorse the system implementation. Implementation of EHR will provide a lot of benefits to healthcare sector in Katsina State, the key findings indicate that majority of the respondents embraced the need for EHR to assist in improving the quality of healthcare in Katsina state. The state government has to provide the required resources, there is need to follow specific steps, and also there is need to solve the problems hindering implementation of EHR practices in Katsina state, there is also benefits that the state will gain if the system is implemented successfully.