Use and Gratification of ICTs by Health Care Personnel in Nigerian South- South Tertiary Hospitals

ICTs have been seen to improve the quality of healthcare delivery as a result of their far-reaching capabilities. The numerous healthcare delivery tasks such as research, gathering of data from patients daily, cross checking their histories and collaborations between specialists among others can be simplified through the use of computers. This study examined how healthcare workers in select hospitals in the South-South region of Nigeria used ICTs and how this impacted on healthcare delivery services. Survey was the tool for generating data for the study. The findings revealed that health workers apply ICTs to various activities such as communicating with colleagues and patients; using ICTs as personal assistants, (reminders, schedulers etc); as well as for storage and analysis of patients’ data, etc . Moreover, ICTs impacted service delivery in areas such as improved diagnosis, assembling health workers faster during emergency situations through calls and text messaging as well as better patient management procedures occasioned by easy access to updated information on the Internet.