IMPROVING SERVICE DELIVERY THROUGH ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION IN PUBLIC HOSPITALS IN KENYA

Abstract

Quality healthcare service delivery has a significant influence on customer satisfaction, the burden of
meeting health service costs, and the recovery of patients. Therefore, health facilities should make use
of electronic health management systems to improve the quality of their service delivery in
administration and patient care. The purpose of carrying out this study was to establish how Service
Delivery can be improved through Electronic Communication in Public Hospitals in Kenya. A
pragmatic research paradigm was employed coupled with Descriptive and correlational research
design. The target population was all the 1207 professional staff working in Moi Teaching and Referral
Hospital Eldoret and Kenyatta National Hospital Nairobi as well as 1841 outpatients treated in both
hospitals between January and May 2020. To select the 341 respondents of the research, a stratified
random sampling technique was used. The researcher used secondary and primary data. Semistructured
questionnaires were distributed to the respondents to allow for the collection of primary
data. Qualitative data was analyzed with the help of thematic analysis. Inferential and descriptive
statistics were used in the analysis of quantitative data. Descriptive statistics that were used include
mean, percentages, frequencies, and standard deviation. Inferential statistics that were used are
multiple regression analysis, correlation analysis, and univariate regression analysis. From the
findings, the utilization of electronic communication had a positive influence on service delivery in
public hospitals in Kenya as indicated by the regression coefficient of 0.715 (p-value=0.000). This
implies that a unit improvement in the utilization of electronic records management would lead to a
0.715 improvement in service delivery in public hospitals in Kenya. Since the p-value (0.000) is less
than the significance level (0.05), the null hypothesis was rejected and hence utilization of electronic
records management has a significant influence on service delivery in public hospitals in Kenya. It can
be recommended that health facilities in Kenya should improve the utilization of personal digital
assistants, social media platforms, and local area networks to improve service delivery through
reduced queuing and turnaround time.
Key Words: Electronic communication, Service Delivery, Public Hospitals.