The Effect of Mobile Phone Technology in Bridging the Gaps in ARV Uptake Care Service Delivery in Kenya: A Case Study in Kibera, Nairobi County

Abstract

The Kenyan constitution seeks to guarantee every citizen the right to quality healthcare services but is hampered geographical location, socio-economic statuses, and education among other factors of intended recipients. The country has a high mobile phone penetration rate and mobile devices have revolutionized the way people interact. Digitalization of the healthcare sector is a vital aspect that contributes to effective delivery of care services. This study set out to assess about the impact of mobile technology in closing the gaps within the health care service delivery. It focused on Kenya as the case study, where, just like many other developing countries, the challenge of unequal healthcare services delivery. The objective of the study was to identify the gaps in healthcare delivery in Kenya with a focus on Kibera, an informal settlement in Nairobi by the use of mobile technology on clinical services to MSF patients. To evaluate how mobile technology would help in bridging gaps in healthcare service delivery by assess how it improves self-care among the visiting patients, to establish how far the mobile technology has change lives of patients in healthcare service delivery. The study target population was patients visiting Médecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) clinic. A cross-sectional study design was employed in this study. Purposive and simple random sampling method was used to select the study sample of 210 participants. Quantitative data was collected using survey questionnaire as the instruments of data collection. Pretesting of the questionnaires was carried. To analyze the data, SPSS 17 software was used. The main findings showed that n=66.12% of the respondents (n=14.29% strongly agreed + n=55.24% agreed) that the use of mobile phone technology improved their access to healthcare services. Hypothesis testing using p value of 0.05 also showed that use of mobile phone technology positively impacted the delivery of healthcare services. The findings showed that n=66.12% of the respondents agreed that the use of mobile phone technology improved their access to healthcare services. The study recommends that governments should strive to equip healthcare clinics and hospitals with mobile technology such as internet enabled communication devices as a way of linking healthcare providers with patients for easier access to free health information and concluded that with those interventions in place, we would be able to deliver healthcare services that are equal and efficient to all.