Information Systems in Health Services and E-Health: A Case Of Ankara Province

Today, technology is developing rapidly. The health sector also benefits from developing technologies and carries many of the services to the virtual environment. With the use of informatics in health field, efficiency and quality in service increase and medicine, data and medical errors decrease. This study has been carried out to determine the importance of informatics applications in health services and the level of usage of internet information sources by patients. The sample of the study consists of polyclinic patients who apply to a state, a university and a private hospital operating in Ankara. The sample of the study was calculated as a total of 1140 polyclinic patients, 381 polyclinic patients for university hospital, 381 polyclinic patients for state hospital and 357 polyclinic patients for private hospital. The questionnaire questions which will be used to measure the level of Internet health information resources of the patients were evaluated by Andreassen and others. (2007) and the master thesis of Onur Mendi (2012). The questionnaire data filled by the participants were entered into SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). Frequency analysis, factor analysis, reliability analysis, difference analysis and relationship analysis were performed to evaluate scale expressions. Since the data did not show normal distribution, Mann Whitney-U Test was used to compare two nonparametric independent groups and Kruskal Wallis tests were used to compare more than two independent groups. As a result of the analysis, it was determined that the use of internet information sources differed according to the demographic characteristics and daily internet usage frequency of the participants. The use of Internet information sources also varies between public, private and university hospitals. Internet information resources are used the most by university hospital participants, while state hospital participants use the least among the three hospital groups.