Critical Success Factors in Health Information Technology Implementation

Abstract

Health Information Technology (HIT) implementation success factors are evolving and proliferating, making it difficult for both researchers as well as practitioners to focus their limited resources on narrowing down those factors that impact success the most. A nationwide survey conducted on Finnish information technology (IT) managers to evaluate the critical success factors (CSFs) for HIT implementation in the order of importance unveils (1) system quality, (2) service and information quality, and (3) the support of leaders to be among the top ranking CSFs. Finnish IT managers generally prioritize system-related success factors higher than collaboration-related success factors. This research is among the first to provide survey-based empirical foundation for success factor prioritization in HIT implementation. It also aims to unravel IT manager decision-making in CSF-ranking process. Further, it enables the identification of success factors, which are rated important but may not have yet been considered sufficiently. One counter-example is “the involvement of physicians as project champions,” which has often been seen as crucial to HIT implementation, although project champions were rated at the bottom of the CSF list being surveyed.