Patient Records Retrieval Strategy on Service Quality of Health Information Management Professionals in Public Health Institutions in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Service quality (SQ) has emerged as an essential aspect for high customer industries like
hospitals. Patients demand quality, healthcare institutions must implement a system in meeting
the expectations of the patients. Medical records are important tools in patient management
with details about each patient’s health history from birth to death. The wide range of clinical
information seekers suggests a strong demand for information, thus getting records is essential
in information retrieval systems. Patient records retrieval strategy entail all processes and
procedures in place to enhance prompt recollecting patient health records as the need arises.
For high SQ there should be comprehensive working record retrieval strategy (RRS). Literature
has not been established on how patient records retrieval strategy (PRRS) influence SQ among
HIMPs, the study is based on it. This is a cross-sectional study that included 322 HIMPs, total
enumeration technique was employed. Structured questionnaire was used. Data collected was
analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings revealed that HIMPs render very
high quality service to their patients with the grand mean of 3.55 on a four-point scale where
PRRS has grand mean of 3.36 showing high level of PRRS in PHIs in Oyo State. Hypothesis
reveals a fair relationship at 0.421, adjusted value 0.175 implying less significant contribution
of PRRS on SQ. The outcome show that PRRS has contributed significantly to SQ of HIMPs
in PHIs in Oyo State. Therefore, it is recommended that HIMPs should be encouraged through
training, and conferences with modern IT equipment to enhance higher performance.