Use Of Routine Health Information For Decision Making Among Health Workers At Coast General Hospital, Mombasa County, Kenya

ABSTRACT

Health workers collect and report data routinely on all their activities. Studies show that very little of this vast amount of information is used by those who are collecting the data and by local health management at health facility or County levels. Ideally, local data should be collected, analyzed and used in order to support local health management, health promotion and prevention and to improve local health service delivery. Significant resources have been invested on HMIS but we are unsure whether the available routine health information is used for decision making. This study aimed at assessing technical, organizational and behavioural factors that influenced information use among health workers at Coast General Hospital (CGH), Mombasa County, Kenya. The Study design utilized was descriptive cross sectional.. Probability, simple random sampling was used as this avoided bias. Self-administered questionnaire, key informant interview guide and focus group discussion guide were tools used to collect data. A total of 236 health workers participated in the study. Quantitative data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20 and qualitative using QSR international NVivo11. Descriptive statistics and chi-square test to determine significant association was done and results presented in tables, graphs and charts. The results showed 69.6% use of routine health information for decision making with 30.0%% reporting having received minimal training on information management areas. Highest education level attained by health worker, professional training and accessibility to resources like computer had statistical significant association to information use for decision making (p < 0.05). Inadequate support from the immediate supervisor 124 (52.5%) compounded by unclear roles and responsibilities 107 (45.4%) were reported as hindrance to information use. In conclusion the study demonstrates partial use of routine health information for decision making with interplay of technical, organizational, and behavioral determinants. In the view of the findings, this study recommends need for County HMT in conjunction with the national level to provide training to improve health workers’ skills with specific focus on information use through on- job trainings mentorship and enhance organizational context by providing resources that supports information use with targeted regular review meetings, feedback coupled with support supervision are also recommended.