An Assessment of e-Health Readiness in the Public Health Sector of Mauritius

Abstract

e-Health has emerged as a fundamental tool to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of health delivery systems. However, evidence suggests that the success of e-health implementation needs a comprehensive e-health readiness assessment of the different stakeholders. e-Health readiness assessment represents a significant step to analyse the existing settings and provide appropriate approaches to successful e-health transformation. The objectives of this study are to provide an assessment of the e-health readiness in the public health sector of Mauritius and to gauge the perceptions of different cadres about the critical factors for e-health implementation. A cross-sectional approach was adopted to elicit relevant data among different cadres randomly chosen from the five regional hospitals in Mauritius. One of the main findings of this study is that the staff in the public health sector of Mauritius are ready to adopt e-health and provide full support for its implementation. Identified attributes were categorised based on the literature to develop a conceptual framework. The result has shown significant contribution of different constructs included in the framework. The results also provide an understanding and the need to focus on the right strategy to introduce e-health in Mauritius. Hence, the model may practically be used by health practitioners and researchers in the e-health readiness assessment status when there is a plan to implement an e-health system.