Re-Engineering Access to Specialty Care through the Adoption of Mobile Health Technologies in Obstetric Care in Rural Ghana

Access to Specialty Care for Obstetric patients in Sunyani Municipality is a challenge. Obstetric care needs special attention and access should not be limited to only Obstetric patient who resides close to a health facility with Specialty Care because adverse maternal health care can lead to mortality and all Obstetric patients should have unlimited access to Specialty Care. This study assessed the prospect of using mobile health technologies in supporting access to Specialty Care in Obstetric care in Sunyani Municipality. A descriptive cross-sectional, community-based study was conducted among Obstetric patients in Sunyani Municipality. Requisite retrospective data was gathered to describe Obstetric care distribution in Sunyani Municipality. A sample size of 282 Obstetric clients was recruited for the study. Respondents’ answered questions on perception on awareness of mobile health technologies, level of satisfaction of usage of mobile health technologies, challenges of the current methods of accessing Specialty care and effect of proximity of healthcare facilities to client’s location. Logistic regression analysis of awareness of Mobile Health Technologies and Frequency of Access to Specialty Care showed that the Odds of Obstetric clients who access Specialty care many times in a month to be aware of mobile health technologies has 5.833 odds more, compared to Obstetric clients who access specialty care once a month (P-value of 0.054 within a confidence interval of 0.803 to 24.285) is however statistically not significant. All Health facilities with Specialty Care are located in Sunyani central thus all Obstetric clients who require Specialty Care have to travel to Sunyani Municipality. Time spent traveling and waiting to see a Specialist is a disincentive to Obstetric clients. On average Obstetric Clients in Sunyani Municipality spend 2 hours traveling to seek Specialty Care and also spend 2 hours waiting in queue to access the Specialist. The time constraint discourages Obstetric clients anytime they are referred to seek Specialty Care. Adopting mobile health technologies in Sunyani Municipality will ameliorate the quality of health services and help save the lives of pregnant women in Sunyani Municipality which is in line with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), Goal 3.