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

Abstract

Health service delivery in Kenya and Mandera County Referral Hospital (MCRH) in particular has been hampered by low utilization medical equipment. This study sought to investigate factors that influence the utilization of medical equipment in health service delivery in MCRH. This was a cross-sectional study design with a sample of 108 health workers from MCRh. The study adopted questionnaires for data collection and data was analysed using SPSS V.23. Descriptive analysis involved frequencies, percentages and cross tabulations. The inferential analysis was done using binary logistic regression. The findings revealed that human resource capacity development is a significant predictor of utilization of medical equipment (p = 0.001, 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 Mandera county referral hospital (p = 0.001, Ex (β) = 2.119). The study 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 that management of Mandera county referral hospital to improve the capacity of the staff through training, have in place detailed medical equipment policy and adhere to medical equipment procurement policy.