Abstract:
This study titled “the role of electronic medical record implementation for supporting hospital
performance: a comparative investigation of selected public and private hospitals” aimed to
assess the availability, efficiency and extent of utilization; contributions for quality of health
service; impact on the workflow; and challenges in the use of EMR system in public and private
hospitals. The study followed descriptive and exploratory research design and mixed research
approach. The study area was clustered both in the regional/ rural (Jimma) area of the country
and the capital city/ urban (Addis Ababa) area of the country, these were Jimma University
Medical Center (public, rural) and Oda Hulle Primary hospital (private, domestic), St. Paul
Specialized hospital (public, urban) and MCM Korea Hospital (private, foreign) to enhance
the representativeness of the result. The sample respondents of the study, which were selected
using non-probability purposive sampling technique, were 151 health professionals, ICT
technicians and managers among which 147 samples were participated in the data collection
session. The data were collected using questionnaire and semi-structured interview methods.
The quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS v.25 software package and the qualitative
data were analyzed by thematic analysis technique. The result of this study revealed that
private hospital health professionals are satisfied with the facilities in their hospital's
electronic medical record better than the public hospital health professionals. Therefore,
private hospital health professionals are better than public health professionals in terms of the
use of private electronic medical record resources. On the other hand, higher percentage of
the health professional’s agreeing that electronic medical records resources utilization and
availability of electronic medical records systems and adequate resources play an important
role to achieve better performance in both private and public hospitals. The result of the study
also revealed that the health professional’s’ performance of private hospitals is better than
health professional’s’ performance of public hospitals because of electronic medical record
system resource availability and effective utilization of resources available in their hospitals.
Finally, the study forwarded the recommendations to government that developing effective
electronic medical record system to minimize the gap between public and private hospitals
resources and to improve the health service performance of the health professionals with
respect to integrated electronic medical record system especially in public hospitals.
