Challenges of using Hospital Information Systems by nurses: comparing academic and non-academic hospitals

Abstract

Background and aimHospital Information Systems (HIS) are used for easy access to information, improvement of documentation and reducing errors. Nonetheless, using these systems is faced with some barriers and obstacles. This study identifies the challenges and the obstacles of using these systems in the academic and non-academic hospitals in Kerman.MethodsThis is a cross-sectional study which was carried out in 2015. The statistical population in this study consisted of the nurses who had been working in the academic and non-academic hospitals in Kerman. A questionnaire consisting of two sections was used. The first section consisted of the demographic information of the participants and the second section comprised 34 questions about the challenges of HIS use. Data were analyzed by the descriptive and statistical analysis (t-test, and ANOVA) using SPSS 19 software.ResultsThe most common and important challenges in the academic hospitals were about human environment factors, particularly “negative attitude of society toward using HIS”. In the non-academic hospitals, the most common and important challenges were related to human factors, and among them, “no incentive to use system” was the main factor. The results of the t-test method revealed that there was a significant relationship between gender and the mean score of challenges related to the organizational environment category in the academic hospitals and between familiarity with HIS and mean score of human environment factors (p<0.05). The results of the ANOVA test also revealed that the educational degree and work experience in the healthcare environment (years) in the academic hospitals have a significant relationship with the mean score related to the hardware challenges, as well, experience with HIS has a significant relationship, with the mean score related to the human challenges (p<0.05).ConclusionThe most important challenges in using the information systems are the factors related to the human environment and the human factors. The results of this study can bring a good perspective to the policy makers and the managers regarding obstacles of using HISs from the nurses’ perspective, so that they can solve their problems and can successfully implement these systems.

Untitled

“…Most papers in this review studied the determinant factors by directly focusing on the HMIS data quality or performance 16,22,24,25,[27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43] . Some papers studied the HMIS to explore their gaps and challenges encountered 26,[44][45][46][47][48] , to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of HMIS functional components 23,49,50 , to analyze the management and evaluation portions of HMIS 51 , to assess the consolidation of the HMIS data and associated factors 52 , to examine the challenges and facilitating factors of HMIS on the basic of the data quality of the disease-specific programmes such as TB, HIV/AIDS and Malaria 21 , and maternal health programme 53 , to explore the determinants of the e-HMIS's sustainability 54,55 and to evaluate the DHIS2's adoption 56,57 .…”

“…These poor processes of organization lead to poor organizational culture. As a result, the HMIS produced duplicated, inconsistent and unmanageable data 42,44,57 .…”

“…The HMIS staff learned about HMIS through only a short course or workshop or on-job training that did not cover all contents of the HMIS 16,22,24,27,29,30,31,33,34,36,37,38,39,41,43,46,50,52,57 . Further, the HMIS staff had less opportunity to learn about HMIS-related knowledge due to their insufficient time, work pressure and over-workload 27,28,31,44,46,52 . Additionally, lack of supportive supervision, regular data auditing and positive feedback from upper levels caused less chance for progress in HMIS knowledge and lead to poor HMIS performance 22,24,28,30,31,34,42,43,51,52,55 .…”

“…Inefficient processes and poor performance of the HMIS were directly linked with great deals about governance. In performing the HMIS activities, management without a fair political framework, management by personal point of views of organizational politicians, inappropriate management of the HMIS staff's recruitment, turnover, and their workplaces, less accountability of the HMIS staff, lack of shared decision makings, inability to maintain compliance of organizational culture and inability to increase staff's participation were important challenges to the HMIS performance improvement 31,44,52 . Also, the poor HMIS performance was associated with the unclear and unfair allocation of the national budget in the HMIS activities 26,37,38,41,54 .…”

The efficiency and effectiveness of surgery information systems in Iran

“…Hospital information systems (HIS) have been developed with the aim of collecting, storing, processing, and providing access to patients’ information through computers and communication tools. They are used for establishing communication among healthcare providers, managing patients’ information, and providing better services to patients [ 1 ]. An efficient and effective system is necessary to reach the goals of a health care organization.…”