Factors Affecting Medical Equipment Utilization in Health Service Delivery in Mandera County Referral Hospital, Kenya

Abstract

Medical equipment utilization is critical to health service delivery in the health sectors globally and locally in Kenya. In Mandera county referral hospital, the major problem is poorly functioning health system due to poor utilization of important medical equipment. This study therefore sought to investigate factors that affect medical equipment utilization in health service delivery in Mandera county referral hospital, Kenya. Specific objectives were to investigate the effect of human resource capacity development, medical equipment management policy, medical equipment procurement policy and adherence to customer service charter on utilization of medical equipment in Mandera county referral hospital. This study therefore sought to investigate factors that affect medical equipment utilization in health service delivery in Mandera county referral hospital. The study used a descriptive cross-sectional survey design. The target population of this study was 147 staffs. The staffs consisted of Doctors, Nurses, Clinical Officers, Laboratory Technologists, biomedical engineers, commodity officers and Pharmacists. The study expects that human resource capacity development, adherence to customer service chatter, medical equipment policy and medical equipment procurement policy will have a significant influence on medical equipment utilization in health service delivery. The tools of data collection adopted were questionnaires and observation checklist for selected equipment. The filled questionnaires were checked for adequacy before coding. Quantitative data from questionnaires were coded, entered into SPSS Version 23 for further analysis. The study adopted descriptive and inferential statistics to analyse the data. Descriptive analysis involved frequencies, percentages, cross tabulations. The inferential analysis consisted of chi-square test of significance and the binary logistic regression. The findings of the study revealed that human resource capacity development is a significant predictor of utilization of medical equipment (p = 0.000, Ex (β) =0.064). The study also established that medical equipment management policy is a significant predictor of medical equipment utilization (p = 0.031, Ex (β)= 8.891). The causal effect relationship between medical equipment procurement policy and medical equipment utilization was also significant (p = 0.025, Ex (β) = 1.221).Finally, adherence to service charter was a significant predictor of utilization of medical equipment at the hospital at Mandera referral hospital(p = 0.000, Ex (β) =2.119).The study thus concluded that the major determinants of medical equipment utilization at Mandera referral hospital included human resource capacity development, medical equipment management policy, medical equipment procurement policy and adherence to service charter. The study recommends to the management of Mandera referral hospital to continue improving human resources at their disposal through training their staff on medical equipment, motivating the employees by remunerating those who do well and involving employees in purchasing of medical equipment. The study suggests to top management of Mandera referral hospital to have a detailed medical equipment management policy. The medical equipment policy must categorically identify all medical equipment and show the movement logs of the equipment. Further, the study recommends to management of Mandera hospital to strictly adhere to medical equipment procurement policy.”