Maturity Assessment of Hospital Information Systems Based on Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM)— Private Hospital Cases in Iran

Masarat Ayat,Mohammad Sharifi

doi:10.4236/ijcns.2016.911038

Abstract

Introduction: Today, information technology is considered as an important national development principle in each country which is applied in different fields. Health care as a whole and the hospitals could be regarded as a field and organizations with most remarkable IT applications respectively. Although different benchmarks and frameworks have been developed to assess different aspects of Hospital Information Systems (HISs) by various researchers, there is not any suitable reference model yet to benchmark HIS in the world. Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) has been currently presented and is globally well-known to benchmark the rate of HIS utilization in the hospitals. Notwithstanding, this model has not been introduced in Iran so far. Methods: This research was carried out based on an applied descriptive method in three private hospitals of Isfahan—one of the most important provinces of Iran—in the year 2015. The purpose of this study was to investigate IT utilization stage in three selected private hospitals. Conclusion: The findings revealed that HIS is not at the center of concern in studied hospitals and is in the first maturity stage in accordance with EMRAM. However, hospital managers are enforced and under the pressure of different beneficiaries including insurance companies to improve their HIS. Therefore, it could be concluded that these types of hospitals are still far away from desirable conditions and need to enhance their IT utilization stage significantly.

Highlights

Today, information technology is considered as an important national development principle in each country which is applied in different fields
The findings revealed that Hospital Information Systems (HISs) is not at the center of concern in studied hospitals and is in the first maturity stage in accordance with Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM)
In order to evaluate the maturity of HISs in accordance with EMRAM model, three private hospitals were selected in Isfahan province

Summary

Introduction

Information technology is considered as an important national development principle in each country which is applied in different fields. Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) has been currently presented and is globally well-known to benchmark the rate of HIS utilization in the hospitals. Notwithstanding, this model has not been introduced in Iran so far. The importance of hospitals’ e-health utilization is more recognizable when it is seen that extensive complexity of health care environment along with multi aspect operation of each patient, causes high level of mistakes occurred by hospital personnel managers [5]. Different forms of e-health utilization in hospitals is increasing [13] and hospital authorities are more and more interested in applying this technology due to its outstanding impact on health care quality improvement and medical operational obligations [14] [15]. The American association of hospitals has estimated that 46% of American hospitals are currently using information technology at the average and high level

Objectives

Methods

Results