Analyzing the enabling factors for the organizational decision to adopt healthcare information systems

Technological advancements have accelerated the deployment of healthcare information systems (HIS) with the potential to enhance productivity, lower costs, reduce medication errors, and ease the manpower strain on the healthcare industry. A recent development is the use of wireless vital signs monitoring systems for ubiquitous patient care. Although these systems can provide various benefits to healthcare professionals and patients, there is a high incidence of unsuccessful HIS projects and problems with initiating their adoption. Particularly, the role of pilot studies for initiating adoption and the enabling factors for the decision to adopt HIS are unclear. Motivated thus, this paper applies the technology-organization-environment perspective to obtain a holistic understanding of the phenomenon. A framework of factors leading to an adoption decision for wireless vital signs monitoring systems is developed through a cross-case analysis of pilot trials conducted in two large public hospitals. With differing adoption decisions, findings from the two cases are synthesized to create the framework that identifies the enabling factors and shows their interrelationships in facilitating the adoption of these HIS. 1 INTRODUCTION The deployment of healthcare information systems (HIS) aims to enhance productivity, lower costs, reduce medication errors [1], and ease the strain on the healthcare industry due to the trends of population ageing [34] and shortage of trained healthcare professionals [23]. Facilitated by technological advancements, opportunities have arisen to deploy new HIS, such as wireless vital signs monitoring systems. In recent times, wireless vital signs monitoring systems have garnered considerable interest from hospitals [33]. By strategically placing sensors at specific places on a patient's body, vital signs such as temperature, blood pressure, and pulse rate can be assessed remotely through such systems. 2 With the use of a mobile network or Wi-Fi, this information can be transmitted through a trusted network to healthcare professionals responsible for the patient. The potential benefits of implementing a wireless vital signs monitoring system are manifold. The use of wireless biosensors to measure patient vital signs can eliminate the need for nurses to conduct routine rounds for manual vital signs monitoring and the recording of these measurements on paper. Previous studies have found that manual documentation of vital signs measurements can take up to 20% of nurses' work time [5,16]. Introducing a wireless vital signs monitoring system may thus save time that could be used for other nursing tasks such as interactive patient care. In addition, all patients' vital signs measurements can …