Barriers to the Adoption of Electronic Medical Record System in Ethiopia: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND: Electronic medical records (EMRs) can improve the quality of health care and patient safety. Various countries have gone through the local application of EMRs to various health care organizations in national implementation and integration of EMRs. Ethiopia lags far in the back in this regard, as solely some hospitals have implemented EMR. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to identify barriers to the adoption of EMRs in Ethiopia through a systematic review of the literature. METHODS: PubMed, Semantic Scholar, and Google Scholar have been searched for applicable articles. The search method focuses on peer-reviewed, empirical research conducted in Ethiopia. The ultimate set that met the inclusion standards was 9 studies. The authors extracted, analyzed, and summarized empirical results associated with EMR barriers in these studies. RESULTS: This systematic review identified the following 17 barriers to EMR adoption: absence of EMR training, limited access to computers, insufficient computer literacy, deficiency of EMR knowledge, inadequate technical help, absence of EMR manual, negative attitude to EMR, limited internet access, lack of management support, electric power interruption, absence of perceived system quality, absence of perceived information quality, lack of willingness, the complexity of the system, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and lack of IT qualification. CONCLUSION: The most common barriers for EMR adoption are absence of EMR training, limited access to a computer, poor computer literacy, poor EMR knowledge, lack of technical support, and absence of an EMR manual. As this study summarizes the available evidence regarding barriers to adopting EMR in Ethiopia, future research will rest on this evidence and specialize in building a proper framework for EMR implementation in Ethiopia.