Telemedicine systems deployment in the Kenyan healthcare system: a study of the role of organisation collaboration

Abstract

The promise of telemedicine is great as observed in developed countries. However, its adoption in developing countries has been very slow. The Kenyan government approved telemedicine (use of ICT to overcome geographical barriers and increase access to health care services) as a strategic approach of improving healthcare delivery especially in the marginalised areas of the country. However, the adoption of telemedicine is further hindered in developing countries by the fact that the cost of implementing telemedicine technology is deemed high and the resources needed are scarce especially in the public sector. Extant literature on healthcare technological innovation indicates that organisation collaboration can expedite the adoption of telemedicine especially in developing countries. Since it is highlighted that empirical evidence on how organisation collaboration can facilitate telemedicine deployment in developing countries is still lacking, this research aims to develop a model to examine the potential of various organisation factors in facilitating telemedicine deployment in developing countries. This study employed a conceptual research framework to examine organisation factors that may influence organisation collaboration in facilitating telemedicine deployment in developing countries. A questionnaire survey was conducted in 50 private and public hospitals located in Eastern Kenya. 177 valid questionnaires were received and analysed using SPSS software (version 20). The findings of this research revealed that Kenyan hospitals collaborate with other organisations mainly to lessen budget restrained suffered during technological innovation process. Further, it was revealed that organisation affiliation might enhance their ability to adopt telemedicine. Organisation affiliation was observed to significantly influence organisation resources, organisation’s innovation acceptance, organisation’s innovative capacities, organisation agility and collaborative innovation aspects. In addition, all the organisational model factors were supported and explained 46.5% of the variance in collaborative innovation internal outcomes and 53.2% of the variance in collaborative innovation external outcomes. However, personnel innovation acceptance made no significant effect on collaborative innovation outcomes.