Critical success factors of smart card technology in South African public hospitals

Background: Even though the government has set several admirable targets for raising the standard of healthcare, as highlighted by communities and media reports, public health institutions’ services continue to fall short of patients’ expectations and basic standards of care. For this reason, the general public has lost faith in the healthcare system. The public healthcare system in South Africa is completely dysfunctional and urgently needs to be transformed to serve the majority of those who use public hospitals. Objectives: The study aimed to improve healthcare for the majority of South Africans by investigating the critical success factors (CSFs) that influence the adoption of smart card technology (SCT) in South African public hospitals. Methods: A thorough review of peer-reviewed literature was conducted to determine potential barriers to adopting SCT. Furthermore, a hybrid model that combines the Health Unified Technology of Acceptance Theory (HUTAUT) model, DeLone and McLean IS success model (DM) and the diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory will be developed, validated and tested to identify the CSFs adoption of SCT in public hospitals in South Africa. Results: The validated research model has been developed to be adopted by nurses at public hospitals. Conclusion: This research will contribute to the development of a new framework that identifies the CSFs for SCT adoption in South African public hospitals. Contribution: The study’s results will make a special contribution to the body of knowledge in the fields of health informatics, particularly e-health

The Trajectory of IT in Healthcare at HICSS: A Literature Review, Analysis, and Future Directions

Research has extensively demonstrated that healthcare industry has rapidly implemented and adopted information technology in recent years. Research in health information technology (HIT), which represents a major component of the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, demonstrates similar findings. In this paper, review the literature to better understand the work on HIT that researchers have conducted in HICSS from 2008 to 2017. In doing so, we identify themes, methods, technology types, research populations, context, and emerged research gaps from the reviewed literature. With much change and development in the HIT field and varying levels of adoption, this review uncovers, catalogs, and analyzes the research in HIT at HICSS in this ten-year period and provides future directions for research in the field

Kvittering av analyseresultater som hensiktsmessig metode for kvalitetssikring av svaroppfølging i sykehus EPJ

Masteroppgave i helse- og sosialinformatikk- Universitetet i Agder, 2016Background Laboratory results are essential in modern patient treatment, and follow up of test results is crucial to ensure the quality of patient care. Despite this more than 43 000 lab results were unsigned in the electronic healh record (EHR) at Oslo University Hospital (OUS) in April 2016. One of the main objectives of this study has been to identify the causes of missing signing of test results among physicians involved in patient treatment. Method A questionnaire was used for data collection from a selection of 585 physicians at OUS, of which 182 responded to the survey. Elements from the theory models Leawitt diamond and UTAUT were used to identify possible causation and contribute in analyzing a wide range of variables that may affect the signing of analysis results. Results Among the many reasons why physicians do not sign test results, the study reveals that the organization’s lack of focus on signing is of considerable importance. Other important elements are poor or unsufficient functionality in the journal system, and the fact that many of the signing tasks end up in an undefined worklist or they are missent to a wrong recipient. However, the main reason for neglecting signing seems to be lack of time. This becomes evident by the respondent’s desire for solutions for auto-signing or help from others to sign, faster computers and EHR, and time for the physician to accomplish signing tasks and follow up test results. Some physicians will not sign according to the intention, but only for appeasement of imposed requirements, giving an uncertain relationship between the signing and the follow-up of test results. Physicians affiliated to outpatient departments find signing more useful than physicians affiliated to inpatient departments. Conclusion Despite the challenges related to signing of test results, the study shows that the vast majority of physicians are relatively familiar with the intention of signing and that most analysis-results are signed. In consequence, signing of test results in EHR is considered to be an appropriate method for quality assurance of test-results follow up

Technology Attributes, Organizational Learning Attributes, Service Attributes, and Electronic Health Record Implementation Success

Ph.D. in Technology Management (Digital Communication Systems)Electronic Health Record (EHR) is a technology innovation which has the potential to offer valuable benefits to the healthcare industry such as improved quality of patient care and safety, optimization of healthcare workflow processes and availability of electronic data for clinical research. The implementation success of EHR is therefore significant to the healthcare industry in the United States and around the world. Prior studies in research literature have considered the impact of technology attributes, organizational learning attributes, and service attributes on information technology implementations in various other domains based on theories such as Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), Theory of Planned Behavior (TRB) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), but none have considered their association with implementation success in a comprehensive manner within a single study pertaining to the healthcare domain as this study does. Hence, this study addresses an essential research gap. The approach used by this study in conducting the research based on a multi-factor research model (including the aforementioned attributes) is consistent with the general method used by academic researchers whereby the ability of a unique and selective list of factors to predict certain outcomes is leveraged. The data for this research study was collected using a questionnaire survey instrument based on the Likert scale. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used for data analysis due to the presence of latent variables in the research model. The results of the statistical analyses support the hypotheses confirming positive associations between technology attributes (ease of use, result demonstrability, performance expectancy), organizational learning attributes (organizational learning capability, organizational absorptive capacity), service attributes (service-dominant orientation), and EHR implementation success. The results of this study are of importance to both academicians and practitioners.M.S

A framework for implementation of smart card technology in public healthcare

The proliferation of information and communication technology (ICT) in numerous public administration sectors has accelerated the transition of government departments from traditional work into work that is highly dependent on ICT. Smart Card Technology (SCT) has intrinsic benefits for a range of industries, including telecommunications, finance, transportation and the public sector in the areas of security, authentication and multi-application capabilities. Medical mistakes still occur often in public healthcare, which results in poor service. As a result, manual file systems cannot be depended upon or used and prescription errors resulting from misinformation or inconsistency regarding the dosage, allergies and interactions must be resolved. This study seeks to develop a framework for implementing SCT in public healthcare. The key factors for the application of SCT were enhanced in this study by using a conceptual framework based on the Healthcare Unified Theory of Acceptance of User Technology Model (HUTAUT) (2018), DeLone and McLean IS Success Model (2003) and Diffusion of Innovation theory (DOI) (2003). To achieve its goals, the study adopted a quantitative research methodology. Respondents were selected using the convenience sample technique. In the Steve Biko Academic Hospital, Tshwane District Hospital, Kalafong Tertiary Hospital and Pretoria West District Hospital in South Africa's Gauteng area, 406 provided healthcare professionals self-administered questionnaires. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 was used for data analysis, and both descriptive and inferential statistics were applied in this study. It was decided to validate both the model and the instrument using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Moreover, structural equation modelling (SEM) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was applied. The quantitative study's findings identified several elements that must be considered when making decisions for SCT to be implemented in South African public hospitals. Seven hypotheses were found to be supported by the investigation, including those covering behavioural intention (H5), system use (H8), information quality (H9), communication (H12), compatibility (H13) and trialability (H14). The performance expectancy hypothesis (H2), on the other hand, was not supported because of its low reliability. Five hypotheses, however, that dealt with effort expectancy (H1), social impact (H3), facilitating conditions (H4), user pleasure (H7) and user attitude (H6) were not, for this rationale, validated in this study. These results indicated that the Department of Health and other stakeholders' choice to apply SCT in public healthcare is significantly influenced by behavioural intention, system quality, system use, information quality, compatibility, communication and trialability. This study explores SCT’s potential application in public healthcare. In addition, the Department of Health should increase the usage of SCT in public hospitals throughout all provinces where healthcare reforms are urgently required. This could be addressed by healthcare professionals within public healthcare by using elements for the implementation of SCT acquired from the study. The study intends to assist with the implementation of smart card technology, which would increase and improve the standard of healthcare service delivery in South African public hospitals.School of ComputingPh. D. (Information Systems

Implementing a Large-scale Electronic Health Record System in the Primary Healthcare Centres in Saudi Arabia

There is worldwide demand for the implementation of electronic health systems and a transformation to electronic transactions in healthcare organisations. This move to e-health transformation stems from the perceived positive impact that e-health systems have in improving the quality of healthcare and, in turn, reducing expenses. Despite this, more than half of previous Electronic Health Record System (EHRS) implementation projects have failed due to several barriers and challenges. There has been no previous research that has explored the implementation of an EHRS in Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs). In addition, barriers and facilitators to the implementation of large-scale EHRS in PHCs are not well defined and there is little known about the impact of Financial Resources (FR) and Centralised Management (CM) on such implementation. Thus, this thesis aims to explore the large-scale implementation of EHRS in PHCs in Saudi Arabia (SA). To achieve this aim, a mixed-methods approach comprising both quantitative and qualitative methods was adopted. Data were collected via questionnaire-based studies and semi-structured interviews. Three different populations were targeted: project team members, PHC staff, and EHRS end-users. Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied to the quantitative data, and thematic analysis was used to analyse the qualitative data. The findings revealed high PHCs readiness at the organisational and individual level when compared with the technological level. Both FR and CM were documented to have a positive impact on the implementation of a large scale EHRS. Several facilitators to the implementation of the EHRS were identified, including: strong leadership and appropriate management, PHC specifications, system usability, perceived usefulness and efficiency. The scale of the project, shortage in Health Informatics (HI) expertise, lack of training and support, geographic challenges, software selection and end-user involvement were identified as the main barriers to implementing a large-scale EHRS in the PHCs. No relationships were detected between individual demographic differences, such as age and gender, and level of readiness or satisfaction. Based on the Saudi experience, there may be some important transferable lesson for similar projects elsewhere. Large-scale EHRS projects need to adopt CM. In addition, due to shortage in HI expertise, policymakers may need to carry out some consultations to formulate good implementation plane. Large-scale projects also need to be implemented by more than one vendor and include training and technical support to increase end-user satisfaction. Inadequate infrastructure, lack of interoperability, changing executives and lack of technical support were the main possible causes to the failure of large-scale EHRS projects. Implementation needs to ensure sufficient budget and time have been allocated to mitigate the challenges identified