Identifying Barriers to IT Adoption in Clinical Health Care: A Pilot Study

Abstract
Information technology adds considerable value to modern organisations. It plays a major role in the financial viability of health care organisations, like hospitals but, while it is indispensable for hospital administration, the penetration of IT into clinical areas has been low. Although the administrative side of health care enjoys considerable computer support, the clinical side does not. Yet data on clinical errors in patient care, such as incorrect medical dosages, or even treatments, suggest automatic patient data processing could be beneficial. Electronic communication could make available critical health information that is currently often unavailable. Clinical IT support is a key area in the current US E-Health initiative to improve the integration of computers in health care. But clinical health care providers often resist IT support. This has been attributed either to medical conservatism, IT not being easy to use or both. However, doctors and nurses often use complex medical equipment, and in health care laboratories they have readily accepted computer support. We suggest a more valid reason for IT resistance may be that clinical health care has unique requirements, specifically data confidentiality and data mobility. The difficulty of combining these criteria in a single IT product may explain why clinical health care lags considerably behind administrative health care in IT support. This paper briefly reviews the literature and describes a follow up pilot study that investigated the barriers to clinical IT adoption. The study, administered at an urban teaching hospital with medical school affiliation in the United States, aimed to investigate the level of acceptance, resistance and change associated with the diffusion of information technology innovations into operating departments within clinical health care environments.

NB: Full paper will be added by 15 October 2006.