An examination of the adoption of electronic medical records by rural hospital nurses through the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology lens.

摘要

Electronic medical records (EMR), the computerized storage and retrieval of patients' health data, have the potential to improve the quality of healthcare services, reduce medical errors and lower medical costs. Despite these benefits, health care providers have traditionally been slow in the adoption of these systems. Past research on EMRs tends to focus on physician perceptions and their adoption tendencies, even though nurses are the frontline of patient care and have a great deal of patient charting responsibilities. This study sought to understand the intended adoption behaviors of nurses during an EMR implementation through utilization of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model.;Mixed methods were used to better document the adoption perceptions of nurses during an EMR (McKesson's Paragon Order Management) implementation. The first phase was conducted via an online survey with nurses (n=113) from Marquette General Hospital (MGH) at their last Paragon training session. The second phase used an interview guide with nurses (n=31) from MGH's intensive care unit/critical care unit (ICU/CCU) to further explore the findings from the survey. The results suggest that social influence was the strongest predictor of intended adoption behaviors, however, performance expectancy was still a significant indicator of adoption behavior. Additionally, a social network was sketched to display the interactions of the ICU/CCU nurses in regards to the EMR, in order to provide a more in-depth view of social influence during the EMR deployment. The implications of this study indicate the need to better understand the role of social influence and organizational parameters such as shift and unit in order to advance theory and prescribe solutions to enhance diffusion and adoption of EMRs.