Abstract:
Developing countries are slow adopters of new technologies, particularly with regards to the health services of these countries.
This study explores the data collection and management challenges in four Ghanaian hospitals using a survey study approach and
proposes implementing an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system as a solution to these challenges. Some challenges that would
impede the implementation of EHR in a Ghanaian hospital are the initial huge start up costs, poor computer skills of healthcare
professionals, poor maintenance culture, and lack of policy to spearhead the implementation of the system. The weak state of
information infrastructure at the hospitals is another challenge in an EHR implementation. EHR could potentially reduce waiting
times for patients, reduce the cost of the hospital‘s operations, improve interdepartmental communication and collaboration, provide
opportunity for sharing best practices among physicians within Ghanaian hospitals, and enhance better resource allocation. The data
an EHR could primarily capture would be patients‘demographics, care plans, laboratory results, billing and NHIS claims information.
