Guiding Healthcare Technology Implementation

Abstract

Healthcare technology is used to improve delivery of safe patient care by providing tools for early diagnosis, ongoing monitoring, and treatment of patients. This technology includes bedside physiologic monitors, pulse oximetry devices, electrocardiogram machines, bedside telemetry, infusion pumps, ventilators, and electronic health records. Healthcare costs are a challenge for society, and hospitals are pushed to lower costs by discharging patients sooner. Healthcare technology is being used to facilitate these early discharges. There is little understanding of how healthcare facilities purchase, implement, and adopt technology. There are two areas of theories and models currently used when investigating technology: technology adoption and implementation science. Technology adoption focuses mainly on how the end users adopt technology, whereas implementation science describes methods, interventions, and variables that promote the use of evidence-based practice. These two approaches are not well informed by each other. In addition, amplifying the knowledge gap is the limited conceptualization of healthcare technology implementation frameworks. To bridge this gap, an all-encompassing model is needed. To understand the key technology implementation factors utilized by leading healthcare facilities, the prevailing technology adoption and implementation science theories and models were reviewed. From this review, an integrated technology implementation model will be set forth.