Telemedicine and Performance of Private Hospitals in Eldoret City

Abstract

Telemedicine has emerged as an important digital healthcare innovation with the potential to improve healthcare accessibility, patient-provider communication, operational efficiency, and organisational performance. But the utilisation of telemedicine services remains uneven among private hospitals and patients, limiting the realisation of its potential benefits. This paper explores the effect of telemedicine strategy use and performance of private hospitals in Eldoret City, Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. The paper was guided by a positivist research philosophy and employed an explanatory research design. The target population comprised 1,973 employees working in 25 Social Health Authority-accredited private hospitals classified as Level IV, V, and VI, as well as outpatient customers using healthcare services in the selected facilities in Eldoret City. A sample of 333 hospital employees and 384 outpatient respondents was drawn from eight selected private hospitals using stratified and proportionate sampling procedures. Data were collected using structured questionnaires administered to hospital employees and outpatient customers and analysed using descriptive statistics and Pearson’s Product-Moment Correlation analysis. Results indicated that telemedicine utilisation among private hospitals was moderate, with hospital employees reporting higher levels of utilisation than outpatient customers. It was revealed that there was a statistically significant positive relationship between telemedicine and hospital performance (r = 0.444, p <0.001).  It is concluded that telemedicine contributes positively to the performance of private hospitals by improving healthcare accessibility, enhancing communication between patients and healthcare providers, and supporting operational efficiency. But the uneven utilisation of telemedicine across hospitals and the relatively lower level of patient access indicate that its potential remains underutilised by private hospitals in Eldoret City. It is therefore recommended that private hospitals institutionalise telemedicine within routine clinical workflows, develop standard operating procedures, strengthen staff training, and invest in appropriate digital infrastructure to improve accessibility and operational efficiency.