User Adoption of the New Health Information System - Individual and Organizational Determinants

The computer has become an integral part of healthcare delivery by providing tools for improvements in the quality of care. However, the failure rate for information systems implementation in healthcare organizations will pose a great challenge in the area. In this paper, we aim to discuss user adoption of the new health information system in healthcare organization. In this study, we review the literature in order to illustrate previous studies that present failures in implementing new IT-based systems in healthcare settings. Next, we discuss and apply theory to interpret the results. The results demonstrate some important aspects in the implementation of new health information system such as considering user involvement in the design and implementation phase of the system, taking into consideration and differentiating the different professional needs when developing the system, user training methods, and to consider work routine changes due to implementation of the new system. Our findings show that evaluations of health IT-based systems seem to have not been successfully implemented in a number of cases, and have failed to demonstrate improvements in patient care, operating costs savings, and improvements in productivity. This study shows that, in fact, we have not learned from the past. It can be concluded that the application of a participatory design approach in health IT-based systems may be fruitful for the organization. The involvement of the end users in the design and implementation process will allow for the collection of their ideas, thus benefiting the developing system.