An Adoption Model for a Big Data Analytics System for improving Healthcare Services in Burundi’s Public Hospitals

Abstract

One of the key responsibilities of a government is to provide efficient healthcare services to its citizens that are better and affordable. In its 2011-2015 National Health Development Plan, the Burundian government acknowledges that the use of health information systems is effective in the planning, monitoring-evaluation at all levels of the healthcare sector. In Burundi today, patients’ health records are collected using handwritten forms and stored in filing cabinets after which the statistical analysis is done manually before the reports are submitted to the ministry after a month. In addition, there are insufficient standards in gathering the data, irregularities of surveys, incompatibility of internal media, poor completion of data collection tools, lack of archival systems for data and feedback at the various levels. These challenges are the origin of the delay in gathering information for analysis in order to gain useful insights. Evidence based research and practice shows that adoption of a Big Data Analytics (BDA) system that comprises a centralized Electronic Health Records (EHR) database and a real-time data analysis system that extracts useful insights from the medical data can significantly address these challenges. Unfortunately, BDA adoption models and automated assessment tools that address the Burundian context is lacking not to mention the dearth caused by researchers’ predominant focus on the technical aspects and system development. Therefore, this study’s aim was to propose a BDA system adoption model for improving healthcare services in Burundi’s public hospitals. This was achieved by examining the factors that influence the adoption of BDA in public healthcare services using the Technology Organization Environment (TOE) adoption theory through a desk research and investigating the methods used by the ministry of health to collect, store and analyze medical data. A sample of 9 public hospitals of Burundi were selected from which 6 responded positively. Semi-structured interviews accompanied by observations and documents review were used to collect information for the assessment of the readiness of Burundi in adopting a BDA system in its public hospitals using the ARAT an automated web-based assessment tool. Lastly a tailored BDA system adoption model for improving Burundi’s public healthcare services was developed. The findings showed a high level of readiness in Burundi’s public hospitals for adoption of BDA systems. The country has adequate telecommunication infrastructures and has started using information systems like OpenClinic and DHIS2 in some hospitals. But there is still a lot of improvements to make in order to assure that the adoption is successful. The tailored adoption model developed points out the need of a private network that interconnects all the public hospitals with the ministry of health, the implementation of OpenClinic in all the public hospitals, implementation of standardized health records system and policies, increase ICT training programs for the staff and allow patients to access their health records. Overall, all the objectives of the study were met.