Antecedents of telemedicine adoption in private health care facilities in Nairobi County, Kenya
Date
2024
Authors
Obura, S.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Strathmore University
Abstract
Telemedicine can change how healthcare is delivered globally and in Kenya, as it can allow healthcare service providers to provide better and coordinated healthcare to most communities that the current health services cannot reach. Its adoption in Kenya is limited; thus, the current study aims to examine telemedicine adoption in private health facilities in Nairobi County. Specifically, the study aimed to investigate the effect of technological factors on the adoption of telemedicine by private healthcare facilities in Nairobi County, while concurrently determining the effect of organizational and environmental dimensions on the adoption of telemedicine by private healthcare facilities in Nairobi County. The study was anchored on the TOE framework, applied descriptive research, and sourced primary data by administering 151 questionnaires. The study adopted descriptive and inferential statistics for data analysis and presented results in figures and tables. The study concludes that staff within hospitals possess relevant knowledge and skills to guide the implementation of technical systems, the hospitals have adequate staff with technical skills, and there is also a significant agreement on the sufficiency of resource provision to support investments in new emerging technologies within the hospitals. In addition, there are policies to guide the development of training manuals that enhance the infrastructural capacity of staff and systems that ensure they can maintain technological infrastructure. However, despite having systems in place to ensure that technologies adopted in the hospitals support reliable service provision, the staff preparedness to utilize new technical systems in service provision had the lowest mean score. The study concludes that sufficient human resources are available in the hospital to support the implementation of new technical systems and that the hospital has adequate equipment and facilities to adopt new technical systems in their operations. It further concludes that the organization has enough financial resources to support investment in new technology equipment and staff training, and there is sufficient demand for primary and specialized care within the hospital to justify the adoption of new technologies in service provision. The hospital management also routinely delegates duties to subordinate employees to ease decision-making. Similarly, management routinely reviews the existing structures to ensure alignment with their facilities' core objectives. The researcher concludes that the degree of competition in the private health industry is high and has pushed the hospitals to invest in emerging technologies; the competitive environment in the private health industry has exposed the hospitals to new standards and practices in the provision of healthcare; relevant government agencies have streamlined the regulatory environment, which has supported the assimilation of technology in private practice; relevant regulatory agencies provide the facilities with incentives to improve the digitalization of healthcare services, the increased demand for primary and specialized healthcare locally has exerted pressure on the hospitals to revolutionize service offerings and that various stakeholders in the health industry have enabled the facilities to integrate emerging technologies faster respectively. On technology adoption as the dependent aspect, the study concluded that due to various dimensions, the health facilities have clear and defined telemedicine strategies; they identify and adopt new technologies and processes that enhance their business models and improve the customer experience.
Description
Full - text thesis
Keywords
Citation
Obura, S. (2024). Antecedents of telemedicine adoption in private health care facilities in Nairobi County, Kenya [Strathmore University]. http://hdl.handle.net/11071/15539