Technology acceptance model perceptions of operational staff on the implementation of advanced radiography equipment
- Authors: James, Bryan Gerard Anthony
- Date: 2023-04
- Subjects: Medical technology , Radiography--Equipment and supplies
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/61393 , vital:70634
- Description: Throughout the recent history of South Africa, the increasing requirements from state and private sector healthcare institutions have relied heavily upon medical imaging technologies for the purposes of improved patient healthcare and service quality standards. Developments in this field of healthcare have seen many interesting and challenging operational changes: from the first implementation and use of X-ray equipment demonstrated in Krugersdorp in 1899; to the current advanced digital systems found in the medical imaging services sector of healthcare. This research study measured the medical imaging operational staff perceptions about new advanced medical imaging equipment and technologies. The theory crossed the academic disciplines through a quantitative survey about technology, operations management and healthcare. Together with staff perceptions about future medical imaging technologies’ usefulness and ease of use, the findings may impact their daily operations within a conducive technology acceptance management paradigm. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences, 2023
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- Date Issued: 2023-04
Clinicians knowledge and perceptions of point of care testing (poct) in selected hospitals in the free state, South Africa
- Authors: Watkins, Edgar Jeffrey
- Date: 2022-08
- Subjects: Point-of-care testing , Preventive health services , Medical technology
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/27264 , vital:66487
- Description: Point of care testing (POCT) improves access and equity to health diagnostic services in resource-limited settings like South Africa, where some health facilities do not have on-site laboratories. With recent technological advancements, most traditional laboratory tests can now be conducted on-site at primary health clinics (PHC), hospital wards and clinics. One advantage of the POCT device is that it can be used by a non-medical laboratory expert at the patient’s bed side during hospitalizations or near the patient in the doctor’s consultation rooms. This results in a shorter turnaround time for the availability of test results when compared to that from a specimen sent to a traditional clinical laboratory. Despite the benefits of POCT, many clinicians (doctors and nurses) avoid utilizing POCT for quality assurance reasons. Clinicians believe the results from a POCT device may not be as reliable as the results from tests performed by a medical laboratory scientist in the traditional clinical laboratory. This study used a concurrent mixed method research design to explore clinicians' POCT knowledge and attitudes in a subset of hospitals in the Free state of South Africa. The study population comprised of consenting medical professionals from the ten (10) selected Free State district hospitals (study sites). The findings demonstrated that hospitals in urban areas have easier access to laboratory services. There were two (2) urban study sites that had on-site laboratories which achieved faster Turn-Around-Time (TAT). The participants indicate that they are aware of POCT and routinely use it, but there are far fewer POCT tests available than laboratory tests. When diagnostic options are scarce, point-of-care testing (POCT) can provide a more accurate diagnosis than traditional methods. The improved health care provision and reduced incidence of health complications is the end result. According to the participants, having access to POCT diagnostic services has shown promise in addressing challenges that sometimes present with laboratory-based methods, particularly in settings with limited access to hospitals or when laboratories cannot be accessed. Further, clinicians argue that errors in the usage of POCT may occur due to the quality of these POCTs and improper documentation of the test results by the clinicians. Therefore, poor utilization of POCT by clinicians can be improved if implemented with pre-set strict selection goals and processes to ensure that the right POCT is selected for the right purpose that would reduce resource expenditure by the hospitals and improve patient experiences and health outcomes. , Thesis (MPH) -- Faculty of Health Sciences, 2022
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- Date Issued: 2022-08
Factors affecting the use of mobile devices for remote data collection in home community based care
- Authors: Shozi, Nobubele Angel
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: Home care services -- Technological innovations , Medical technology , Home care services -- Organisation and administration
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MTech
- Identifier: vital:9806 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1012621 , Home care services -- Technological innovations , Medical technology , Home care services -- Organisation and administration
- Description: The health care systems of developing countries, which are already weak, have to carry an additional strain brought on by the burden of infectious diseases. This added strain means that the health care provided is not of the highest quality. The use of home community based care (HCBC) was introduced as an attempt to provide basic health care services to people through the services of community health care workers (CHCW). With the development of HCBC in developing countries and the CHCW playing a vital role in ensuring that the lives of people living with diseases are improved, the need for information and communication technology (ICT) solutions is increased. The information that is collected by the CHCW is paper-based and it cannot be analysed and used efficiently and effectively. This study embraces the adoption of a socio-technical perspective when an ICT solution is introduced in an environment. A socio-technical perspective focuses on three dimensions: the user, the environment and the technology used. These three need to be in coherence to ensure that the technology is used effectively by the user within the environment. Therefore the objective of this study is to identify a list of socio-technical factors that affect CHCWs when they are using mobile phones for data collection purposes in home community based care. In order to achieve this it was necessary to understand how the socio-technical subsystems of the HCBC environment are constituted. The study followed a qualitative approach, including interviews and observations, to collect the data which will best enable the researcher to understand the home community based care environment, its people and the use of the technology to collect data in this environment, in particular mobile phones. A qualitative content analysis approach was followed to analyse the data and constitute a list of factors affecting the use of mobile devices for remote data collection in home community based care. It is hoped that this research will assist to inform the design of appropriate mobile health applications to both ease the burden of CHCWs (i.e. it should be faster and easier to use than paper) and improve the healthcare service provided through enabling access to patient records to all partners in the care continuum.
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- Date Issued: 2012