An Evaluation of the pharmacy information system in teaching hospitals based on the HOT-fit model

Introduction: The pharmacy information system plays an effective role in managing patients' medication information through informing physicians about unsafe medication prescriptions, prescribed overdoses, and possible drug interactions. The present study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the pharmacy information system using the HOT-fit (Human, Organization And Technology-Fit) model in selected teaching hospitals at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. Methods: We conducted this cross-sectional study in 2019 in two stages. First, we presented the extracted criteria and confirmed them in the panel of experts. In the second stage, the pharmacy information system was evaluated from the point of view of 118 users of the system, namely the secretary or nurse who register medication requests in the clinical and specialist departments of HIS. The evaluation results were analyzed using linear regression test via SPSS, version 21. Results: In the specialized panel, 24 criteria were confirmed; then, we designed a questionnaire according to the HOT-fit model which was provided to the users. According to the result, 55.37% of the users rated the system's performance as favorable. Results showed that according to the analysis of 17 hypotheses of the HOT-fit model, there is a significant relationship between aspects of technical, human, and organizational factors, as well as net benefits. Also, there was not a statistically significant relationship between the aspect of information quality in the technical factor and the aspect of  the system use in the human factor. Conclusion: System use and information quality criteria increase the satisfaction of information system users. In this regard, in the design of the hospital information system, attention should be paid to the compatibility of the system with the tasks of the user and the usefulness of the expected output. Also, we believe that more studies should be conducted on the information quality and system use criteria that lead to user satisfaction.