Exploring the Information Sources Consulted by Doctors at the Point of Care in Four Selected South African Referral Hospitals.

Background: To provide an understanding of the clinical information sources consulted by teaching or referral hospital-based doctors in four South African provinces.

Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional survey design was used. To identify provinces, hospitals, and participants, simple random sampling was adopted. This study targeted a total of 276 doctors from all the four hospitals working across different departments within the hospitals. This study was conducted in four selected South African public referral/teaching hospitals in four different provinces, namely Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital in the Eastern Cape province; Witbank Hospital in Mpumalanga province; Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Hospital in Northern Cape province and lastly, Pietersburg Hospital in Limpopo province.

Results: Overall, 221 doctors were surveyed. Doctors relied more on colleagues as formal and informal sources of information. They seldomly relied on newspapers, reference, and library books, or used hospital computers to access the internet. They seldomly attended training workshops organised by the district or provincial office. Protocols and clinical guidelines which are kept in the hospitals and easily accessible were often (27.9%) or always (51.1%) used.

Conclusions: Teaching hospitals need to strengthen information resources to ensure that even when colleagues are used as an information source, they are an accessible means to validate the correctness of the information provided.