Assessment of hospital information systems implementation: A case study

The use of integrated Hospital Information Systems is related with many benefits for the healthcare system, increasing the effectiveness of the provided services and assuring quality of care. Aim of this study is to investigate the types of Information Systems, the level of integration and the problems identified during the implementation phase, in three public hospitals. The above are expected to contribute to the understanding of the organizational, human resource and technical factors related with the successful implementation of a hospital IS. In order to investigate those elements, an assessment questionnaire was developed and completed by nine hospitals IT employees of the three hospitals. In addition, open interviews were organized with the same employees to further formulate an overall aspect, while in one hospital case, observation and discussion with four different categories of involved staff was undertaken. It was found that the implementation problems are mainly related with the underfunding, inadequate use of standards, lack of skilled IT experts, insufficiently trained personnel and users' reserve. The problems may be tackled with a supportive hospital administration committed to the successful implementation. The external contracting company working on its own, without any participation of the hospital IT department seems to be a failure recipe. It is evident that an active management support and skillful hospital IT employees, are expected to result to success stories during the implementation of integrated hospital information systems.