Implementation of telemedicine in the Hohoe Municipality, Ghana: A qualitative study using the Hub and Spokes...

Health systems globally face challenges, including geographical barriers, and inadequate health workers. Telemedicine has turned up as a potential solution to bridge these gaps, relying on technology to enhance healthcare accessibility and improve the quality of health services. A relatively unexplored area in Ghana, the adoption of telemedicine in healthcare delivery has great potential to address health inequalities in the country. We explored the implementation of telemedicine using the Hub and Spokes model.

A qualitative case study was conducted among 15 health professionals working at the telemedicine unit in the Hohoe Municipality. Face-to-face in-depth interviews were used in collecting data, which were analyzed thematically using Atlas.ti.

Telemedicine has significantly improved healthcare accessibility by bridging geographical gaps and improving service delivery. The hub has effectively supported the spokes leading to improved patient satisfaction, reduced mortality, and stillbirth rates. However, challenges such as communication barriers (network issues, one-way communication), and logistical constraints (lack of transportation systems, telephones, and funds to buy airtime for calls) militated against effective delivery of services. Despite these challenges, telemedicine holds significant opportunities for improving healthcare delivery by ensuring timely referrals, bridging knowledge gap between practitioners, and enhancing overall service quality and efficiency.

Integrating telemedicine into routine patient care in the Hohoe Municipality has proven beneficial in addressing healthcare inequalities. Telemedicine has enhanced the quality of healthcare and increased accessibility for remote areas by applying HSM. This highlights telemedicine as an important strategy towards achieving universal health coverage (SDG 3.8) by 2030.