Adoption of hospital information systems in public hospitals in Turkey: An analysis with the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model

Abstract

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) has become a tool which cannot be ignored in terms of public administrations, which provides advantage to the administrations as far as they can be adapted. The use of ICTs become widespread in the health sector as it is in all other sectors. In hospitals, hospital information systems (HIS) are used to keep records of patients and hospitals securely, to improve appointment, in-hospital management, decision support and workflow processes. Therefore, HISs are also used to increase efficiency and productivity, to reduce error rates, to increase service quality, to reduce service costs and to realize the specific purposes such as ensuring patient satisfaction. It is necessary that the end users should adopt HISs to obtain the expected benefits and to implement HIS successfully in public hospitals. The adoption of a technology product is also a sociological phenomenon at the same time. In this regard, the issue of adoption in the relevant literature is addressed in the context of a wide variety of models and many variables. This study is also a study of technology adoption. The subject of the study is the adoption of HISs in public hospitals in Turkey. In this context. The study aimed to determine the factors affecting the adoption of HISs by the personnel working in public hospitals in Turkey, in accordance with the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model in the literature on technology adoption. In the study, the universe of the study consisted of the personnels (physicians, nurses, health officers, medical secretaries] which were working in public hospitals in the Bursa and Balikesir Metropolitan Municipalities at the time of the study. According to the results of the study, performance expectancy, effort expectancy and social influence variables have positive and significant effects on the behavioral intention of hospital staff for using of HISs. In addition, facilitating conditions and behavioral intention variables have a positive and significant effect on usage behavior. On the other hand, it was found that gender has a moderator effect on the relationship between performance expectancy, effort expectancy and behavioral intention. Experience has a moderator effect on the relationship between the social influence and the behavioral intention while age has a moderator effect on the relationship between facilitating conditions and use behavior.