1. eRegTime—Time Spent on Health Information Management in Primary Health Care Clinics Using a Digital Health Registry Versus Paper-Based Documentation: Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial
- Author
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Mahima Venkateswaran, Zaher Nazzal, Buthaina Ghanem, Reham Khraiwesh, Eatimad Abbas, Khadija Abu Khader, Tamara Awwad, Taghreed Hijaz, Mervett Isbeih, Kjersti Mørkrid, Christopher James Rose, and J Frederik Frøen
- Subjects
Medicine - Abstract
BackgroundDigital health interventions have been shown to improve data quality and health services in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Nonetheless, in LMICs, systematic assessments of time saved with the use of digital tools are rare. We ran a set of cluster-randomized controlled trials as part of the implementation of a digital maternal and child health registry (eRegistry) in the West Bank, Palestine. ObjectiveIn the eRegTime study, we compared time spent on health information management in clinics that use the eRegistry versus the existing paper-based documentation system. MethodsIntervention (eRegistry) and control (paper documentation) arms were defined by a stratified random subsample of primary health care clinics from the concurrent eRegQual trial. We used time-motion methodology to collect data on antenatal care service provision. Four observers used handheld tablets to record time-use data during one working day per clinic. We estimated relative time spent on health information management for booking and follow-up visits and on client care using mixed-effects linear regression. ResultsIn total, 22 of the 24 included clinics (12 intervention, 10 control) contributed data; no antenatal care visits occurred in the other two clinics during the study period. A total of 123 and 118 consultations of new pregnancy registrations and follow-up antenatal care visits were observed in the intervention and control groups, respectively. Average time spent on health information management for follow-up antenatal care visits in eRegistry clinics was 5.72 minutes versus 8.10 minutes in control clinics (adjusted relative time 0.69, 95% CI 0.60-0.79; P
- Published
- 2022
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