Influence of Change Management Strategy on the Adoption of Electronic Medical Records Systems in Public Hospitals in Nairobi County

This study sought to determine the influence of change management strategy on the adoption of electronic medical records systems in public hospitals in Nairobi County. Despite the admirable benefits EMR systems promises, there are varied challenges facing their adoption with poor change management being the dominant one. EMR systems have however been successfully adopted in instances where specific change management strategies have been implemented. The study adopted cross-sectional, descriptive survey study design while the study population was drawn from 32 public hospitals with EMR systems in Nairobi County. The study used questionnaires addressed to the officer in-charge of the hospital to collect data. The postulated objectives were tested by employing the Pearson Correlation statistical tool which was facilitated by the statistical package for social sciences (SPSS), while the main method of data presentation was frequency distribution tables. The study findings indicated that there was low EMR hospital coverage with majority reporting that only one department was using EMR. The results of the study revealed that EMR adoption had a moderate positive relationship with participative strategy, educative strategy, and planning. The relationship between EMR adoption and directive strategy was positive but weak. Relative to other strategies, participative strategy had a stronger positive relationship with EMR adoption and was also highly significant with p=0.025. The results further indicated that on job training was the most used mode of training In addition, the study revealed that majority of the respondents had used coercions and ultimatum in bid to influence EMR use. The study recommended that staff should be fully involved in EMR projects to fully exploit the positive relationship with EMR adoption and thus enhance adoption. Secondly, measures should be put in place to guard against breach of patient privacy during on job training sessions as well as conduct train trainers who will conduct internal training on demand and long after implementation is over.