A study of factors affecting acceptance of hospital information systems: a nursing perspective.

BACKGROUND Hospital information systems (HISs) are widely used in Taiwan, and HIS performance must be carefully evaluated. Nursing personnel are the largest group of staff in a hospital and are the center of care delivery; thus, they play an important role in the adoption and evaluation of HISs. PURPOSE The primary objective of this study was to explore the critical factors affecting the acceptance of HISs in Taiwan from a nursing perspective. On the basis of the technology acceptance model, we used six exogenous variables (system quality, information quality, user self-efficacy, compatibility, top management support, and project team competency) as investigation factors. METHODS Survey research targeted nursing personnel in the selected case hospital as participants. A total of 545 questionnaires were sent out, and 501 were returned, indicating a valid response rate of 91.9%. Collected data were analyzed using multiple regression analysis. RESULTS : Results indicate that user self-efficacy, top management support, compatibility, and information quality have significant impacts on perceived ease of use. In addition, top management support, compatibility, and information quality were identified as having significant impacts on perceived usefulness. Furthermore, nurses' perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness on HISs was found to impact significantly on system acceptance, with 45.1% of the total explained variance. CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE Results can help managers understand key considerations affecting HIS development and use and may be applied as a reference for system development and improvement.