Identifying healthcare actors involved in the adoption of information systems

The adoption of information systems in healthcare is no less significant than in any other commercial or caring organisation. The literature on IS adoption in healthcare, makes it clear that the actors involved in the adoption process are almost universally seen as crucial, which matches our research results too. However, how such actors should be identified remains a topic for investigatory work since these are early days in achieving this. We derive and propose a structured method to model how actors might be identified: structured because such a rationale is explicable and such a method is more readily usable when transferred to others. Our structured method, named IGOHcaps, uses a static and then a dynamic step to pull out the individual, group, organisational and human determinants of the critical actors. In this process, the individual actors’ differing views emerge which could enable decision-making bodies to produce more robust proposals if they incorporated some of the appropriate views. We discuss the application of IGOHcaps through a hospital case study. While a single case study cannot be a proof, the engagement of the actors was encouraging

Development And Assessment Of A Program In Clinical And Healthcare Informatics

The objectives of this paper are to report on the development of a program in Clinical and Healthcare Informatics and to assess its impact in terms of (1) the importance of each of the competencies for successful job performance; and (2) the effectiveness of the program in enabling participants to achieve these competencies. The results will be of value in the design and implementation of similar programs for clinical and healthcare professionals because the competencies that are most relevant to successful job performance may become the building blocks for future program development

Critical Issues in Assimilation of Healthcare Information Systems

The implementation of information systems throughout the healthcare industry has increased dramatically over the past decade since it is now generally believed that IS/IT will be able to bring about immense benefit to medical personnel in delivering better services. However, the enthusiasm of having new information systems implemented usually deteriorates dramatically once the system is acquired. This causes a major issue in the assimilation of the newly implemented technology which could provide a negative impact on the successful ongoing use of the information system. This paper describes a research in progress that explores key technology innovation assimilation issues in a healthcare setting with the aim of developing a technology innovation assimilation model for hospitals to successfully implement and sustain the use of the healthcare information system

An Empirical Investigation of Mobile Health Adoption in Preventive Interventions

Innovative applications of mobile information and communication technology (ICT) include the recent use of mobile services for preventive health interventions. We report on a one-month empirical study of such an intervention to evaluate a model that includes positive user adoption factors, together with user perceptions impeding adoption. Findings revealed intrinsic motivation to be a sufficient reason for adoption, and a multi-faceted perceived overall risk as the main reason for resisting the new mobile health service

Improving Medical Decision-Making Using Electronic Health Record Systems

This paper evaluates the contribution of an electronic health records (EHR) system to efficient decision-making by physicians, and investigates whether these systems lead to more efficient medical care in emergency departments (ED). Log-files of patient visits and admissions were retrieved from an integrative EHR system that serves seven main hospitals owned by a large health maintenance organization (HMO). This study focused on readmissions within seven days and single-day admissions, problems that concern hospitals around the world. The findings indicate that using an EHR system in the EDs correlates with a decreased number of readmissions within seven days as well as with a reduced number of single-day admissions. The results provide evidence that using EHR system may contribute to efficiency in an ED by assisting decision-making. We believe this is the first data set that investigates the impact of an EHR on hospital efficiency at the scale of HMO

IMPROVING PATIENT SATISFACTION WITH ELECTIVE SURGERY WAITING: AN EMPOWERMENT PERSPECTIVE

Waiting for elective surgery has been causing severe patient dissatisfaction and is becoming a major concern in most countries with publicly funded healthcare systems. While waitlists, which are used to rationalize the balances between healthcare service demand and supply, are almost impossible to avoid currently, healthcare policy makers could try to remove the tension through providing more satisfactory elective surgery waitlist information to patients on the waitlist. This work-in-progress paper seeks to build a framework towards improving elective surgery patients’ information satisfaction. We propose that an effective waitlist information system (which can meet the information needs of waiting patients) empowers patients, creating a sense of autonomy and control for their own health situation, reducing their stress and uncertainty, improving their sense of perceived equity and power (relative to the healthcare authorities who manage the waitlist) and eventually improves patient satisfaction towards waiting

ADOPTION OF ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS SYSTEM: DIFFERENTIATING MAIN ASSOCIATIONS

Health organizations are implementing health information technologies such as electronic health records (EHR), information systems (IS), and health information exchange (HIE) networks to improve decision-making. However, over the years, the healthcare environment has demonstrated numerous unsuccessful implementations of such technologies. One of the reasons is that physicians tend not to make use of these technologies in the healthcare environment. The various explanations put forward typically refer to patient, physician, and/or work environment-related factors. \ \ This study evaluated the factors associated with the EHR use among physicians in the complex environment of emergency departments. \ \ We used log-files retrieved from an integrative and interoperable EHR that serves Israeli hospitals. We found that EHR was primarily consulted for patients presenting with internal diagnoses, patients of older age, and it was used more by internists than by surgical specialists. Furthermore, EHR usage was larger for admitted patients than for those discharged. \ \ The findings show factors associated with EHR use and suggest that it is mostly related to case-specific features and to physician specialty. The findings strongly suggest that when planning assimilation projects for EHR systems and HIE networks, attention should be paid to those factors associated with system usage. Specifically, in order to increase the efficiency of the system, and enhance its use in the ED environment, physicians´ preferences and practice-related needs need to be taken into account. Furthermore, well-thought IT design and implementation are necessary to generate an increase in meaningful use of HIT, which can serve both physicians´ and patients´ needs

Remote Elderly Monitoring Systems on a Human-centric Perspective

Information systems based on the Internet of Things (IoT) are driving revolutionary solutions in innumerable domains, as the sensitive domain of healthcare. Indicatively, remote monitoring of patients and real-time diagnosis are anticipated as complex systems, offering various services to the associated humans (e.g. patients and caregivers). While researchers focus on the technology necessary to implement remote healthcare systems, such as Remote Elderly Monitoring System (REMS), human concerns restricting their wider adoption are often neglected. Such concerns are transformed into criticalities, that should be considered during system design. In this work, a human-centric perspective on REMS design is explored. Following this perspective, supported tasks are decodified, human concerns associated to REMS usage are identified and revealed criticalities, that stem from human concerns, are extracted. Furthermore, existing REMS implementations are examined, based on the tasks supported and criticalities addressed, resulting in the identification of ways to further improve such systems

Understanding the Complexity of Benefits Management in an Interorganizational eHealth Effort

Information and communication technology (ICT) is an intervention for the future provision of healthcare services and diverse types of technologies are being implemented. However, realizing the benefits of such efforts is challenging. Moreover, collaboration among organizations has become common, which increases the complexity level and making the benefits of ICT efforts even more challenging to realize. As benefits management (BM) practices have not been designed for complex situations, a deeper contextual understanding of BM practices is required. To address this issue, a case study was conducted in a Norwegian interorganizational eHealth effort. The results provide an overview of four central concepts describing interorganizational complexity, as well as organizational and external concepts that challenge current BM practices. The case study findings highlight the need for updated BM practices and provides three novel suggestions for improving BM practices in interorganizational eHealth efforts