Abstract

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have transformed healthcare delivery through various forms of e-health initiatives particularly in the areas of disease control, diagnosis, patient management, teaching, communication, storage, and retrieval of medical information. These benefits notwithstanding, health information managers are still deficient in the effective use and application of modern ICT facilities in the performance of duty in health institutions. It is therefore of interest to study the ICT knowledge and utilization level of health information managers and how it affects their job performance. A descriptive study was conducted involving 22 selected government-owned, mission/faith-based, and private health institutions from over 4,093 health institutions that provided patient care information support services and had licensed Health Information Managers in their employment in South-East Nigeria. A structured questionnaire was used to elicit responses from 411 health information managers in the selected health institutions using stratified sampling technique. The results show that majority of the Health Information Managers in this study have adequate ICT knowledge through training received from self-study, but utilization was poor because most of these health institutions visited do not have ICT facilities. Nevertheless, they are competent in discharging their duties. Provision of adequate funding for ICT, computerization of health institutions, and training of health information managers on the use of ICT to enhance job performance are recommended.

Key words: ICT knowledge, ICT utilization, Health Information Managers, job performance, patient care, coding.