ABSTRACT
An
epidemic free environment enhances the health status of all citizens in the
community. The passive disease surveillance and notification systems occasioned
by haphazard patient records management practices in the health facilities have
led to devastating consequences on epidemic control in Osun State. This is why
a sustainable epidemic controldepends on the extent to which patient records
management practices and disease surveillance and notification systems issues
are given serious consideration by the medical and health officers in local
government areas. The extent to which the medical and health professionals pay
attention to these patient records management practices and disease
surveillance and notification systems issues is not clear. The study, investigated
the influence of patient records management practices, diseases surveillance
and notification systems on epidemic control in all the local government areas
of Osun State, Nigeria.
The
survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study
was three hundred and six (306) medical and health officers in the 30 local
government areas of Osun State. Total enumeration technique was used to cover
all the 306 health care professionals in the 30 local government areas. A
validated questionnaire was the instrument used for data collection. The
reliability coefficient for the variables ranged from (α=0.81) to (α=0.89) and
the overall Cronbach’s alpha reliability co efficient was (α=0.85). The
response rate of 93.1% was obtained anddata were analyzed using descriptive and
inferential (simple correlation, Pearson Product Moment Correlation coefficient
and regression) statistics.
Findings
revealed that a positive and significant relationship existed between patient
records management practices(r=.641, p<0.05), disease surveillance and
notification systems (r=.732, p<0.05) and epidemic control. Findings further
revealed that patient records management practices and disease surveillance and
notification systems had joint influence on epidemic control (Adj. R2=.600;F(2,282)=124.071;
p<0.05). Results further indicated that the more potent predictor of
epidemic control was disease surveillance and notification systems (β=.504;
t=8.551; p<0.05) and the second potent predictor is patient records management
practices (β=.237; t=4.084; p<0.05).This implies that,the relative
influences of patient records management practices and disease surveillance and
notification systemshad a significant influence on epidemic control, which
means a unit increase in
epidemic control activities has a high tendency to improve at the increase in
each of the independent variables.
The
study concluded that patient records management practices and disease
surveillance and notification systems relatively interplayed to influence
epidemic control in the local government areas of Osun State. The study
recommended that,the medical and health professionals should be exposed to
significant training on disease surveillance and notification systems, and
patient records management practices, in order to ensure epidemic free
environment in the state. The government should employ
more health care professionals at health facility level for an effective
epidemic control in Osun State.
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background to the Study
The effectiveness of epidemic
control activities in local government areas in Nigeria require accurate and
adequate patient’s record management as documentary evidence of the care and
treatment which the patient received in the hospital. Patient records are clear,
concise and accurate history of a patient’s life and illness, written from the
medical point of view. They are collection of recorded facts concerning a
particular patient, his or her illness and the events occurring in the course
of professional care for the purpose of providing the best medical care to the
patient, for teaching, research, study appraisal of medical practice and legal
requirements (Benjamin, 2001). Osundina (2014) opines that patients’ records
contain history of illness, medical investigations and tests, results of
examinations, diagnosis and treatment. Patient’s record helps in the planning
process through availability of health data, which serves as a record of
response to patient’s health conditions and as a guide to future therapy.
Hence, records should be managed to serve the purpose for which they were
created.
Popoola (2008) describes records
management as the area of general administrative management, concerned with
achieving economy and efficiency in the creation, maintenance, use, and
disposition of patient information, during their entire life cycle. It is the
application of the systematic and scientific control over recorded information
that is required in the operations of an organization’s business. Such control is
exercised over the creation, distribution, utilization, retention, storage,
retrieval, protection, preservation and final disposal of all types of patient
information within an organization.
The healthcare provider makes an
entry into the medical records with the actual occurrence of the event. The
ability to maintain accurate and timely record is critical for the delivery of
quality patient care, as well as for efficient disease surveillance and
notification systems that will guarantee effective disease epidemic control
within a geographical area. Omole (2015) submits that for any patients’ records
management system to be efficient in any health institution, there must be a
health records department with adequate space, equipment and trained personnel.
Accurate and complete health records must be written for all patients and the
records must contain identification, demographic and clinical data to justify
the diagnosis and warrant the treatment given. Also all entries must be signed
by responsible person and patient records must be filed, organized, and stored
in an accessible manner, in a secured place in the health institution.
Therefore, records currently useful in disease surveillance activities should
not be destroyed because of the possibility of impending disease epidemic that
may warrant case investigation. Records are managed according to the retention
schedule. Once the record management life cycle of a record has been satisfied
according to the predetermined period and there are no legal holds pending, it
is authorized for final disposition, which may include destruction, transfer,
or permanent preservation (Hipper, 2008)
Effective application of records
management life cycle is critical to the management of patients’ records in the
local government health facilities in OsunState. Popoola (2000) asserts that
recorded information has a life similar to that of a biological organism in
that, it is born (creation phase), it lives, (maintenance and use phase), and
it dies, (final disposition). He went further to state that as soon as patient
records are created in the hospital during registration, consideration must be
given to storage facilities, retrieval tools, filing and classification.
Therefore, if the hospital management fails to act on the mentioned issues the
growth of records can consume the available space in the hospital, and cause
inefficiency and poor management of patient health records.
The records life cycle is applicable to
patient records management practices, which covers the life span of patient
record from its creation to its final disposal. Patient records creation starts
with the documentation and registration of patient in the health information
management department of an health institution. This will be followed by
entering of clinical information such as; patient’s complains, diagnosis,
reports of medical investigations and treatment rendered into the record. At
the registration point, a unique hospital number would be assigned to the
patient record to facilitate distinct identification of the record.
The records maintenance phase involves
storage facilities, retrieval tools, filing and classification. This is
applicable to patient records management practices because effective
maintenance of patient records requires the adoption of appropriate filing
system, numbering system, appointment system, tracing system, storage system,
coding and indexing systems. Applications of these systems enhance
accessibility to patient records for an efficient disease surveillance and
notification systems.
Patient record’s use begins with an
initiation stage, during which the information user first becomes aware of the
need to gather information from the existing records, by recognizing the
initial need for information, and attempt to facilitate effective use of the
records through systematic organization pattern of the patient records based
upon his / her needs. Coding and indexing systems are the tools that facilitate
patient records use. These systems involve the process of assigning numeric or
alphanumeric representations to clinical documentation (i.e. specific diseases,
diagnoses and or procedures) as stipulated in the classification system such as
International Classification of
Diseases, volume 10 (ICD-10).
Indexing on the other hand is the process of preparing a catalogue which
denotes the various processes involved in the preparation of entries and
maintenance of a catalogue. Coding and indexing are processes of grouping which
involve putting together like entities and separating unlike entities by
assigning a classification mark to an item through which the item may be easily
identified and located for use when the need arises (Ayegbayo, 2009).
Evaluation is a process of determining
the value of records for further use, and the length of time for which that
value will continue. Evaluation must be done based on the existing policy,
which will stipulate how long records should be kept in their original form and
what to be done after the expiration of the stipulated period. Record’s content,
record’s value, record’s form, reference value, research value, operating
value, fiscal value, legal value, and archival value of the records must be
considered during the evaluation process. Evaluation helps in the
categorization of patient records into active, semi-active and inactive records
(Suleiman, 2010).
Active patient records are records
needed to perform current operations (such as direct patient care and
treatment) they are subject to frequent use and usually located near the user,
and may be managed in a centralized or decentralized health records library.
Furthermore, semi-active phase occurs, when the patients have been discharged
home and only need to visit the hospital on appointment or at will. Records of
discharged patients are processed in the health information management
department and stored in the health records’ library. These categories of
records are seldomly retrieved for patient care and research purposes.
An inactive record is a record that is
no longer needed to conduct current business but is being preserved until it
meets the end of its retention period as stipulated in the enabling
policy. Inactive patient records are
those records that are dormant on the shelves, which their owners or the
patients have cease coming to the hospital, over a given period of time and
records of dead patients that are kept in the health records library. These
categories of records are made to reside in the secondary storage area of the
library in order to create space for active records on the shelves, because of
their reference value during disease surveillance and notification activities
especially when carrying out trend analyses of diseases over a period of time
(Makata, 2015).
American Health Information Management
Association (2011) views records management in the health care industry as a
special program in health information management which involves not only
maintaining patient files, but also coding the files to reflect the diagnoses
and operations of the conditions suffered by patients. Developing and
implementing policies, procedures and guidelines necessary for effective
filing, storage and to make available both physical and electronic health
records for patient treatment in the hospital, in accordance with the state and
federal laws, will improve the availability and security of patients’
information and guarantee continuity of patient care (Huffman, 2001).
Basically, patients’ records can be
used in two ways: for clinical uses and for non – clinical uses. Austrian
(2003) buttresses that, clinical record serves as the recorded facts on
clinical care rendered to the patient, which provides a medium for various
medical disciplines to communicate about a patient’s illness and course of
treatment, supplies information to care givers, serves as a primary source of
information for research by medical, nursing and community efforts, to control
disease and monitor the overall health status of a population. Non-clinical
uses of patients’ records include use by insurance companies, legal advisers,
researchers, international health agencies, government / private employers to
substantiate claims and to monitor the appropriateness of care and service
rendered to a patient. Therefore,
patient records management practices consist of the provision of appropriate
infrastructure, the establishment of mechanisms and procedures, for collecting
and analyzing health data to provide needed information, to be used as a
management tool for informed decision making at all levels of health care
delivery system (National Health Management Information System Policy, 2006)
Disease surveillance and
notification system involves the process of maintaining a constant watch on the
trend of occurrence of diseases within a geographical area through systematic
data collection and processing on mortality and morbidity, and prompt reporting
to the appropriate health authority for further necessary action (Omole, 2008),
which is a watchful, vigilant approach to information gathering that serves to
improve, or maintain the health of the population. A functional disease
surveillance system is essential for defining health problems and taking
action. The application of epidemiological methods in the service of
surveillance, equip local government areas and local health team to set priorities,
plan interventions, mobilize and allocate resources and predict or provide
early detection of outbreaks (Federal Ministry of Health, 2014). Fawole (2006)
also posits that, disease surveillance and notification involve the ongoing and
systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of health data in the
process of describing health events. The information thus gathered, is used for
planning, implementing and evaluating public health interventions and programs.
Also, various surveillance data are used to determine the need for public
health action and to assess the effectiveness of the program. The role of a
good and effective reporting system cannot be overemphasized in the
administration of disease control and their treatment. If reporting system is
good and effective, it serves as a good source of health information or data
bank towards diseases epidemic control. It is important to note that no
epidemic control measure can actually be put in place without effective and
efficient disease surveillance and notification system.
Disease surveillance and
notification system was introduced in 1988, following a major outbreak of
yellow fever in 1987, which affected ten out of the then nineteen states of the
federation. The magnitude of the outbreak was attributed to weak or
non-existence of disease surveillance and notification system in most states.
As a result of this, a task force was established by the Federal Ministry of
Health to review disease surveillance and notification in the country and between
1988 and 1989, disease surveillance and notification system for the country was
developed. Forty diseases of public health importance in the country were
identified and designated for routine (monthly) notification out of which ten
epidemic diseases were selected for immediate reporting. Standard reporting
forms [Disease Surveillance and Notification (D.S.N.) form 001 for immediate
reporting, and DSN form 002 for monthly routine reporting] were also introduced
and the methodology for information flow between the various levels was also
prescribed, i.e. from Health Facility, to Local Government Area (Health
Office), from Local Government Area to State Ministry of Health (S.M.O.H.) and
from state to Federal Ministry of Health (F.M.O.H) level (Oyeniran, 2013).
Hence, in 1989, the National Council
on Health approved the adoption of disease surveillance and notification system
(DSN) in the country based on the recommendation of the task force committee
and subsequent compliance and implementation by the Federal Ministry of Health
enabled the system gain its recognition in the local government presently. The Federal Ministry of Health and Human
Services guideline on surveillance and notification of diseases in Nigeria,
(1991) defined disease surveillance and notification system as a system of
constant watchfulness over all aspects of occurrence and spread of diseases,
which are relevant and important for effective control of such diseases
(Oyeniran, 2013). The information thus gathered is used for planning, monitoring,
implementing, evaluating as well as for the recognition, control and prevention
of disease epidemics. Surveillance data are used to determine the need for
public health action and assess the effectiveness of the program. Over the
years, communicable diseases are leading in the causes of death and disability
among Nigerians, especially those living in the rural areas. To minimize these
effects, there must be quick intervention aimed at providing medical care for
the affected people and also provide health education to create awareness
concerning prevailing health problems and the methods of preventing and
controlling them. The acceptance of modern health care in some local government
areas of Osun State is still not encouraging because some people in the rural
areas still believe in traditional theory of disease cause such as taboos,
witches, wizards, and so on, instead of acceptance of scientific method such
as orthodox medicine application
(Adegbesan, 2014).
It is pertinent to note that authorities
of local governments in Nigeria have designed programs and strategies to
discharge the responsibilities assigned to them under the constitution to meet
the health care needs of their people with the general guidance, support and
technical supervision of the state Ministry of Health. The Local Government
provides essential infrastructures for primary health care programmes and
maintains them accordingly. Authorities of local governments give supportive
action to each component of health programs, health education on importance of
immunization and provides relevant health information to the people on personal
hygiene, environmental sanitation, prevention and control of communicable
diseases as well as such matters where a change in the life styles of the
people can have significant impact on their health status.
Furthermore, epidemic control
programme will only be effective when reliable mechanisms of data collection,
analysis and retrieval are in place with full co-operation of all persons and
organisations concerned, and with an effective disease surveillance and
notification system. Disease notification is the official reporting of
designated diseases to the appropriate health authority, and the purpose of
disease notification is to provide necessary and timely information to permit
the appropriate institution work out epidemic control measures as well as
ensure uniformity in morbidity management (Fatiregun, 2012). The surveillance
activity objective, guide program managers towards selecting data, which are
useful and relevant for making evidence-based decision for public health
actions based on the goal of the disease prevention program.
Lucas & Gilles (2003) define
surveillance as a system of constant monitoring of all aspects of the
occurrence and spread of diseases and use of the information thus gathered for
prevention and control of the disease in question. The characteristics of a
good surveillance system have been grouped in terms of five domains by Lucas
and Gilles: The public health importance of the health event (disease or
condition) under surveillance, the usefulness of the system, the event under
surveillance, the flow of data within the system and the components of the
system, a series of the epidemiological attributes of the system such as;
simplicity, flexibility, acceptance, accuracy (sensitivity and specificity)
representativeness and timeliness, and the resources required to operate the
system.
Disease notification involves the
official report to the appropriate health office at specific level, the
occurrence of specific or notifiable disease, due to their effect on public
health, while a system is a set of interrelated components, that interact
together to perform a given task towards achieving a specific goal or
objective. The usual sequence of event model that identified prompt
identification of first case, detection and reporting, laboratory confirmation,
and response, as the four sequences of events that must be regular part of
health care delivery services is relevant to disease surveillance and
notification system. The implementation of various components of disease
surveillance and notification systems is to timely generate information for
appropriate public health action, these include: detecting, investigating,
reporting and managing cases and outbreaks, collecting and compiling data,
analyzing and interpreting data, producing routine reports of the data and
providing information to decision makers at the higher level and feed back to
the peripheral levels.
Findings from pilot study revealed
that, infant mortality and morbidity rates among the children, due to
diarrhoea, measles, malaria, and respiratory infections, are constant reminders
of the heavy toll which these communicable diseases exert on the people living
in various local government areas of Osun State. In order to minimize these
effects, there must be quick intervention, aimed at providing medical care for
the affected people and also give health education to create awareness concerning
prevailing health problems and the methods of controlling disease epidemics.
The implementation of these interventions is called epidemic control.
Epidemic control is the process of
curbing, checking, or regulating unusual occurrence of infectious disease(s)
among the people within a geographical area. Epidemic is the occurrence of a
number of cases of a disease, known or suspected to be infectious or of
parasitic origin, that are usually large or unexpected for a given place or
time. An epidemic often develops rapidly, so that a quick response is required
(Federal Ministry of Health, 2011). There is threatened or potential epidemic,
when the circumstances are such that the epidemic occurrence of a specific
disease may reasonably be anticipated. This requires, susceptible population,
the presence of impending introduction of disease agent, and the presence of a
mechanism that large scale transmission is possible. (e.g. contaminated water
supply, a vector population and importation of a contagious disease victim such
as Ebola case). This established the fact that epidemics usually result into
loss of human and economic resources, it usually pose political difficulties,
if allowed to continue, can throw the town, Local Government Area, State,
country or even a continent into total disarray and complete chaos.
Epidemic control involves the knowledge
of the occurrence and distribution of diseases including the strategies of
curbing or preventing them. The epidemiological division of the ministries of
health in the state and national levels are responsible for conducting
epidemiological surveys into some diseases that are infectious in nature. This
results in the quick detection of epidemic and the provision of appropriate
action for timely control of disease epidemics. Hence, epidemic control in the
local government areas of Osun State requires the need for accurate, high
quality health information, at the right place and at the right time, as
indicated by information sharing for public health action theory which placed
premium on use of surveillance information for epidemic control. This calls for
health records management practices that can gather, organize, analyze, and
summarize data into reports and assist in the successful carrying out of an active
disease surveillance and notification systems that will result in effective
epidemic control in local government areas of Osun State (Omole, 2015).
Epidemic control outcomes should result
into curbing, checking, or regulating unusual occurrence of infectious
disease(s) among the people within a geographical area, via the use of valuable
information as indicated by information for public health action theory. This
is why the relevance of control measures in disease epidemic control activities
cannot be underestimated, because they contribute to reduction in morbidity and
mortality, reduction in incidence rate of diseases and total stoppage of a disease
epidemic. Availability of timely and relevant health information is also
essential in epidemic control for mobilization resources for specific health
intervention. It is at this instance
that the researcher investigated the influence of patient records management
practices, disease surveillance and notification systems on disease epidemic
control in local government areas of Osun State.
Osun – State came into existence on
August 27, 1991 as a result of the creation of another State out of the former
Oyo State by the then Federal Military Government. The State which has Osogbo
as its capital has an area of approximately 8,602 square kilometers and is
bounded in the West by Oyo State, in the East by Ondo State, in the North by
Kwara State and in the South by Ogun State. The State is made up of thirty
local government areas and the highlights of the local government areas, their
headquarters and total population are stated in the appendix. Osun-State
administration is headed by an Executive Governor, assisted by some
commissioners and Permanent Secretaries. The administration of the 30 local
government areas is run into two main streams viz: the legislature and the
executive. The legislative arm is made up of the leader of the Local government
council, the principal officers of the legislative council, and other
councilors. The executive arm is made up of the local government chairman,
secretary and supervisors, who are either appointed or elected. The head of
local government administration and other directors oversee the functions of
each department and are directly responsible to the executive chairman with
whom they deliberate on the day to day running of the local government (Osun
State Local Government Service Commission, 2016).
The primary health care department of
each local government area provides the largest percentage of all medical and
health services through primary health care system which brings healthcare
services very close to where people live and work, with the assistance of state
government, federal government, and international health agencies. Also,
patient records are managed in these primary health care facilities and
surveillance activities are carried out by designated officers in order to
monitor health events and prevent disease epidemics within their catchment
areas for the purpose of improving the health status of the citizens
(Ransome-Kuti, Sorungbe, Oyegbite & Bamisaiye, 1990).
Patient records management practices
include all devices used for recording and processing of significant
characteristics of patients and their illnesses to produce a comprehensive data
base. Disease surveillance and notification systems involve official report of
diseases to designated health authorities, through detection, investigation,
reporting and managing cases and out breaks, collecting and compiling data,
analyzing and interpreting data, and producing routine information for decision
makers, and feed-back for efficient allocation of resources for effective
disease epidemic control.
It is therefore assumed that the
quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of epidemic control, depends on an
evidence-based, and result-oriented disease surveillance and notification
systems, that rest on a good patient records management practices, for the
generation of accurate and reliable health information for action. Based on
this assumption, the researcher examined the relative influence of patient
records management practices and disease surveillance and notification systems
on disease epidemic control in Local Government Areas of Osun State.
1.2. Statement of the Problem
An
epidemic free environment enhances the health status of all citizens in the
community. It has been observed
by the investigator as disease surveillance and notification officer in one of
the local government areas in Osun State that patient records management
practices could affect disease surveillance and notification systems as related
to epidemic control in local government areas of Osun State.
This is why Adegbesan
(2014) noted that improper management of patient records at the health facility
levels hampers the production of accurate and reliable health information for
action. Poor response to epidemic control by the concerned authorities usually
results from passive disease surveillance and notification systems and improper
management of health records generated within the health care facilities which
use to have negative impact and grave consequences on epidemic control in the
local government areas.
The problem
therefore is that it is not clear the extent to which health care professionals
in the local government areas pay attention to patient records management
practices and disease surveillance and notification systems for effective
epidemic control. Therefore, it is important to find out empirically the
influence of patient records management practices and disease surveillance and
notification systems on effective epidemic control.
It is in the
light of this that the study investigated the influence of patient records
management practices, disease surveillance and notification systems on epidemic
control in local government areas of Osun state; with a view to contributing to
finding solutions to problems associated with patient records management
practices and disease surveillance and notification systems in relation to
epidemic control in local government areas of Osun State.
1.3. Objective of the Study
The
general objective of this study is to investigate the influence of patient
records management practices, disease surveillance and notification systems on
epidemic control in local government areas of Osun State. The specific
objectives are to:
- examine
the patient records management practices in the local government areas of
Osun State;
- ascertain the existing methods of disease
surveillance and notification systems in the local government areas of
Osun State;
- examine the epidemic control activities
in the local government areas of Osun State;
- determine the relationship between
patient records management practices and epidemic control in the local
government areas of Osun State;
- determine the relationship between
patient records management practices and disease surveillance and
notification systems in the local government areas of Osun State;
- find out the relationship between disease
surveillance and notification systems and epidemic control in the local
government areas of Osun State;
- assess the joint influence of
patient records management practices and disease surveillance and
notification systems on epidemic control in the local government areas of
Osun State
- determine the relative influence of
patient records management practices and disease surveillance and
notification systems on epidemic control in the local government areas of
Osun State, and
- identify the challenges facing patient
records management practices and effective disease surveillance and
notification systems in the local government areas of Osun State.
1.4. Research Questions
In line with the objectives stated
above, the study provided answers to the following research questions:
- What
are the patient records management practices in the local government areas
of Osun State?
- What
are the existing methods of disease surveillance and notification systems
in the local government areas of Osun State?
- What
are the epidemic control activities conducted in the local government
areas of Osun State?
- What
are the challenges facing patient records management practices and disease
surveillance and notification systems in the local government areas of
Osun State?
1.5. Hypotheses
The following research hypotheses
were tested in this study at 0.05 level of significance:
H01 Patient records management practices have
no significant relationship with epidemic control in local government areas of
Osun State.
H02 There is no significant relationship
between patient records management practices and disease surveillance and
notification systems in local government areas of Osun State
H03 Disease surveillance and notification
systems have no significant relationship with epidemic control in the local
government areas of Osun State.
H04 There
is no joint influence of patient records management practices and disease
surveillance and notification systems on epidemic control in the local
government areas of Osun State
H05 There is no relative influence of patient
records management practices and disease surveillance and notification systems
on epidemic control in the local government areas of Osun State
1.6 Scope of the Study
This study investigated the influence of
patient records management practices, disease surveillance and notification
systems on epidemic control among medical and health officers in local
government areas of Osun State.The local government area level is the main
focus in the disease surveillance and notification systems in Nigeria because
it is the first level in the Nigerian health system with full time staff
dedicated to all aspect of the health of the public such as monitoring health
events in the community, mobilizing community action and accessing regional
resources to protect the health of communities (Isere, Fatiregun & Ajayi,
2015). The study focused on health care professionals that are responsible for
the management of epidemic control in the health sector of local government
areas in Osun State. They are; Health Information Managers, Doctors, Nurses,
Pharmacists, Community Health Officers, Environmental Health Officers, and
Medical Laboratory Scientists, who are the health care professionals in the
primary health care departments of the thirty (30) local government areas of
Osun State.
1.7. Significance of the Study
The findings of this investigation would
be of significance to the local government authorities in Nigeria, as it would
raise awareness and provide solutions to the challenges of patient records
management practices and disease surveillance and notification systems arising
from epidemic control activities among health care professionals in the local
government areas of Osun State. It would provide information for the patients
and health care professionals on the importance of patient records in their
custody at health care facility level.
The study would highlight the
importance of patient records management practices to the public, the health
care professionals and local government authorities, especially the outcome of
efficient patient records management practices in disease surveillance and
notification activities towards effective epidemic control in a local
government area. It would also provide knowledge on how to improve epidemic
control service delivery to the patient and create more confidence in the mind
of the public that the local government authorities are up to the task of
ensuring effective epidemic control within their catchment areas.
Findings of this study would be of
significance to the health care professionals, because the information
generated from this study would enable them to address passive surveillance
issues and haphazard patient records management practices at the health
facility level. The outcome of this research would help to identify ideal
methods of managing patient records and sensitive types of disease surveillance
and notification methods, which would allow effective epidemic control in the
local government areas of Osun State.
The study would help to correct the
attitude of health care professionals towards patient records management
practices. It would identify the deficiencies in the records management
practices, which use to contribute to insufficient information gathering during
disease surveillance activities and the possible ways to reduce the
deficiencies, in order to bring out good standard of patient records management
practices that would support epidemic control in local government areas of Osun
State.
The results of the study would be useful
to the local government authorities to understand the need to provide necessary
infrastructures that would enhance efficient patient records management
practices and facilitate sensitive disease surveillance and notification
systems that may lead to responsive epidemic control programmes within their
catchment areas.
It would provide a platform for state
and federal governments to make provisions for deficiencies identified, in the
study in order to enhance effective epidemic control in local government areas
in Nigeria.
1.8. Operational Definition of Terms
There
is need to define terms used in this study for the purpose of understanding the
ideas contained therein:
Disease Notification: This is the official way of reporting the
occurrence of the specific disease(s) to the appropriate quarters.
Disease Surveillance:
This is a system of constant monitoring of all aspects of the occurrence and
spread of specific disease(s).
Disease Notification System:
This is a set of interrelated components put in place to facilitate official
reporting of designated diseases to designated health authorities.
Epidemic Control:
This is the act of curbing, checking, or regulating unusual occurrence of
infectious disease(s) among the people within a geographical area.
Health Records (Manager) Officer:
A university degree holder (specialist in health information management) who
manages healthcare data and information resources, and possesses a professional
registration license issued by the Health Records Officers Registration Board
of Nigeria.
Medical and Health Professionals: These
are university degree holders that specialize in medicine, health and allied
fields. They render health care services to the patient based on their area of
specialty and they possess professional license issued by their individual
professions’ regulatory body. They are relevant to this study because of their
roles in records creation and use for epidemic control. In addition, they are
responsible for management of epidemic control in Local Government Areas of
Osun State.
Patient’s
Record: A clear, concise and accurate history of life and
illness of any person receiving treatment from the in-patient or out-patient
services of the hospital, written from the medical point of view. It is a
recorded event on patient’s demographic, clinical and financial data in the
hospital.
Patient Records Management
Practices: These involve the use of professional and technical
skills to create, use, store, maintain and release patient records for
administrative, clinical research, legal purpose, and decision making.
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Item Type: Ph.D Material | Attribute: 131 pages | Chapters: 1-5
Format: MS Word | Price: N3,000 | Delivery: Within 30Mins.
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