Impact of Timely Documentation on Healthcare Delivery System in Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi

Naomi Olorundare; Mudathir Qossim; Timothy Olorundare

Naomi Olorundare
Mudathir Qossim
Timothy Olorundare

Keywords: timeliness, documentation, healthcare, ATBUTH

Abstract

Inadequacy or lack of timely updating and recording of health-related information in medical records do occur in various healthcare settings, which can lead to several issues, which can compromise the quality and continuity of care. Timely documentation among clinical staff, which facilitates diagnosis and treatment, communicates pertinent information to the other caregivers to ensure patient safety, reduce medical error and serves as an important medico-legal function in risk management. The study aimed to investigate the impact of timely documentation on healthcare delivery system in Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi. Methods used are structured questionnaire of health professionals in ATBUTH with questions targeted in accordance with the specific objective of this study, the sampling technique employed was a random sampling which is a sub-group of people chosen by chance in a way that everyone has the chance of being selected. Two hundred questionnaires were distributed and one hundred and seventy-one retrieved personally. Results of the finding are: majority of respondents are male (57.9 %), the highest profession that responded is health information officer/technician (34.5%) and lowest is physiotherapist (2.9%), highest respondent years of experience is 1-10 years (59.1%). The highest respondents affirm that accuracy of documentation, easy accessibility of documentation, completeness of documentation, consistency of information in documentation, and timeliness of documentation have an impact on health care delivery in ATBUTH. From the study it was found that timeliness of documentation has an impact on healthcare delivery system in ATBUTH. At the end of the study it was concluded that timeliness of documentation is effective in healthcare delivery system. It is recommended that medical and clinical personnel should maintain the timeliness, accuracy, integrity, availability, and consistency of all clinical documentation.

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