Benson M. Oweghoro PhD and Elizabeth T. Oluwole
Health Information Managers (HIMs) work almost exclusively with data, they collect, manage and protect health care data, ensuring the accuracy, access, security and quality of such data. Health Information Management is the practice of acquiring, analyzing and protecting patient’s information vital to providing efficient and quality health care. Traditionally, health records were paper-based, however, technological development laid the foundation for e-records, leading to volumes of more complex data that require efficient management. The adoption of e-records though greatly improved health data management, created new challenges of data literacy skills for HIMs. Evidence abound that Nigerian health information system is weak and do not provide needed information. The study is focused on the level of HIMs data literacy skills and ability to manage data in the era of e-records. Respondents were drawn from a cross section of HIMs in Nigeria. A self-developed questionnaire was used to collect data for the study, copies were administered through HIMs National Professional Association platform using google drive, 392 copies were completed and returned. Data analyses were done using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Findings show a high level of HIMs data literacy skills, however, there is need for HIMs to improve their e-data literacy skills.