Assessing the Use of Hospital Information Systems (HIS) to Support Decision-Making: A Cross-Sectional Study in Public Hospitals in the Huíla Health Region of Southern Angola

Abstract

Hospital information systems could be relevant tools to inform hospital managers, support better management decisions in healthcare, and increase efficiency. Nonetheless, hospital managers’ effective use of these systems to support decision-making in Angola is unknown. Our study aimed to analyse the use of hospital information systems as a tool to support decision-making by hospital managers in Huíla, Angola. It was a descriptive, cross-sectional study inducted between July and September 2017 in seven hospitals in Huíla Province, Angola, specifically in the cities of Lubango and Matala. Thirty-six members of the hospital boards filled out a self-questionnaire that consisted of twenty questions based on the following issues: Characterisation of the interviewee’s profile; availability of information in the institution; and quality and usefulness of the available operational information. At least two thirds of the participants reported being unsatisfied or relatively satisfied with each assessed hospital information systems-specific feature. More than 50% have rarely or never used the health information system to support decision-making. Most managers do not use hospital information systems to support management-related decision-making in Angola. Improving the ability of hospital information systems to compute adequate indicators and training for hospital managers could be targets for future interventions to support better management-related decision-making in Angolan healthcare.