EHR in Nigeria

 EHR is an acronym for Electronic Health Record, in simple terms, it is the storage of patient's health information on computers; this helps for easy retrieval of patients information.

Modern EHR not only store patients information, it also manage the hospital workflow as the patient moves from one service point to another, track/manage patients billing information, alert physician/clinician when a patient's investigations result is posted and manages patients prescription. It's a whole web of process that is broken down into modules as per job role.

The benefits of a standard EHR system are numerous in my estimation. I would list some of the well established benefits below:

1. Improve in patients turn around time(T-A-T): The architecture of an EHR is such that there is a central database which all clients system post data to and/or fetch data from. The flow of patient in a hospital is from the Reception, to the Cash point (if the patient is to make payment), to the Triage station for vital signs collection, to the doctor. All of these is done seamlessly managed by the computer without physically carrying file around. The has the potential of increasing patients waiting time as much as 75%.

2. Increase in revenue for healthcare provider: Patients bills are captured more accurately with the implementation of an EHR system. Billing is also more transparent with the possibility of fraud is almost non existent.

3. Holistic care: With Physician having easy reach to patients information, Doctors can make informed decisions quickly.

4. Plug Losses: With a system that manage drug and consumables inventory, a hospital can easily track all stock whether it is in patients prescription, or on the shelf thereby minimizing all sources of waste.

5. Data...data...more data: The health institution will have a database of well organized data that can be easily used for research purposes. Also, data to make Management decisions like "where to cite a day clinic", how does that work? With a database of patients addresses, the hospital can easily identify the area if town that majority of the patient's come from, for a health facility that intend to reduce Out patients footfall, a day clinic in that area of town will be a perfect solution.

These are some of the advantages of an EHR system.

Some of the challenges in the implementation of an EHR system is poor infrastructure in Nigeria, as well as the learning curve in using PCs mostly in the public sector.

Private health practitioners haven seen the benefits of an EHR system are spearheading the use of EHR in Nigeria, if this trend continues, it could be a game-changer for an industry that is slow to adopt change.


Elvis Akpe is an IT professional with 6 years experience in the Healthcare industry.

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