作者
Emeka Chukwu, Lalit Garg, Edward Foday, Abdul Konomanyi, Royston Wright, Francis Smart
发表日期
2022/2/3
期刊
JMIR medical informatics
卷号
10
期号
2
页码范围
e30040
出版商
JMIR Publications
简介
Background
Years of health information system investment in many countries have facilitated service delivery, surveillance, reporting, and monitoring. Electricity, computing hardware, and internet networks are vital for health facility–based information systems. Availability of these infrastructures at health facilities is crucial for achieving national digital health visions.
Objective
The aim of this study was to gain insight into the state of computing hardware, electricity, and connectivity infrastructure at health facilities in Sierra Leone using a representative sample.
Methods
Stratified sampling of 72 (out of 1284) health facilities distributed in all districts of Sierra Leone was performed, factoring in the rural-urban divide, digital health activity, health facility type, and health facility ownership. Enumerators visited each health facility over a 2-week period.
Results
Among the 72 surveyed health facilities, 59 (82%) do not have institutionally provided internet. Among the 15 Maternal and Child Health Posts, as a type of primary health care unit (PHU), 9 (60%) use solar energy as their only electricity source and the other 6 (40%) have no electricity source. Similarly, among the 13 hospitals, 5 (38%) use a generator as a primary electricity source. All hospitals have at least one functional computer, although only 7 of the 13 hospitals have four or more functional computers. Similarly, only 2 of the 59 (3%) PHUs have one computer each, and 37 (63%) of the PHUs have one tablet device each. We consider this health care computing infrastructure mapping to be representative with a 95 …
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