ROLES OF HEALTH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT IN HEALTH CARE DELIVERY SYSTEM

This project work is based on examining the roles of Health Information Management in health care delivery system in University College Hospital, Ibadan Oyo State Nigeria. Health record is central to qualitative health care as health history is key to efficient and effective health care delivery. Unless adequate and comprehensive health records are kept and maintained, effective health care service will be almost impossible. The main role of a Health Information Management professional is to maintain organized and accurate information, and to do that they need to perform several complex tasks across the lifecycle of information, from acquisition to archiving to destruction, in their health care organizations. A descriptive research design was used and it involved the use of questionnaires to assess the opinions of respondents on the research questions. The target population for this study is health record workers in University College Hospital (UCH) Oyo State Nigeria. This consists of Officers, Technicians and clerks working in the health record department. The total number of population is 100 health record workers. The sampling technique employed for selecting the sample used for the study is total enumeration survey. This was used because the study population is not much, therefore the researcher decided to distribute questionnaires to every member of the team. Findings from the study revealed that majority of the respondents in the selected hospital (80%) said Health Information Management Professionals are responsible for collecting medical history of patients. Majority of the respondents (95%) also said Health Information Management Professionals keep record of the medical history of patients. All the respondents (100%) claim that lack of adequate equipment’s is a challenge facing health information managers. Majority 95% said high workload due to few professionals employed is another challenge facing health information managers. Based on the findings, the researcher concluded that, some roles played by Health Information Management professionals in patient care services include collecting medical history of patients and maintaining health record of patients. Some recommendations from the study include, routine trainings of employees should be carried out to improve their work efficiency.UCH management should ensure that quackery is curtailed in the Health Record department by employing more professionals