Abstract:
Background: Manual prescription is a longstanding practice not only in Ethiopian healthcare settings but also in other middle and low-income countries. This approach is prone to mistakes and makes healthcare professionals face difficulty of legibility problem, this leads to medication error and has negative impact on quality of care. To overcome the encounter problem, it is essential to use e-prescription system in healthcare system. Despite all the benefits, there is literature gap about health professional’s intention to use e- prescription system in Ethiopia. Therefore, this study aims assess intention to use e-prescription system and its predictors among health professionals in Amhara region referral hospitals.
Method: An institutional-based cross-sectional study, supplemented with qualitative data was conducted among 924 health professionals from May 19 to June 19, 2024, at Amhara region referral hospitals. A structured self-administered questionnaire was employed for data collection. Study participants were selected using a simple random sampling procedure. SPSS version 25 was utilized to conduct descriptive statistics, while SEM analysis was performed using SPSS AMOS version 25 to identify predictors of intention to use the e-prescription system. Qualitative data were analyzed through thematic analysis.
Result: Response rate was 900(97%), among them 504 (56.0%) participants have intention to use e-prescription system. Factors positively associated with the intention to use e-prescriptions included performance expectancy (β = 0.18, p < 0.001), effort expectancy (β = 0.15, p < 0.001), facilitating conditions (β = 0.18, p < 0.001), and digital literacy (β = 0.35, p < 0.001). Effort expectancy was moderated by gender, being males were found to be positive in influencers in the relationship. From qualitative finding, Infrastructure-Related Issue, Digital literacy problem, Resistant to change, Integration with existing system were challenges that are mentioned by participants and affect health professionals’ intention to use e-prescription system.
Conclusion: The study findings indicate more than half of healthcare providers expressed a positive intention to use the e-prescription system. Factors such as performance expectancy, effort expectancy and facilitating conditions particularly digital literacy emerged as key predictors. Given the strong link between digital literacy and the intention to use e-prescriptions, enhancing digital literacy should be a priority alongside addressing other predictors.
