The use of electronic incident reporting system: Influencing factors

Abstract

Healthcare organizations require reporting harmful incidents whether they occurred or were about to occur. Traditionally, incident reporting systems are paper-based, but recently there has been a movement towards electronic incident reporting systems (E-IRS). The Dental Hospital of Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University in Saudi Arabia is currently in the process of implementing an E-IRS, and it is essential to measure users’ acceptance of the system and recognize the factors that influence it. These can be determined by using a theory known as the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). To measure the behavioral intention to use E-IRS at the Dental Hospital of Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University, to determine the association between demographic characteristics and behavioral intention to use E-IRS, and to identify the factors influencing behavioral intention to use E-IRS based on TAM. This study utilizes a quantitative cross-sectional study design, in which data is collected via a validated paper-based questionnaire. The behavioral intention (IN) scores of the participants were relatively high (mean = 15.29/20, SD = 3.669). Simple linear regression results indicate that perceived ease-of-use (PEU) explains 55.5% of variation in IN, perceived usefulness (PU) explains 62.5% of variation in IN, and that PEU explains 55.6% of variation in PU. Multiple linear regression results indicate that PEU and PU explain 67.2% of variation in IN. Demographic characteristics were found to have no association with behavioral intention scores, except for job title. To increase E-IRS acceptance, E-IRS should be easy to use and its usefulness should be emphasized to its users.