Medical Information Systems. Uses in Evaluation Health Risk Appraisal and Outcomes Management: Combining Methods in Evaluating Information Systems: Case Study of a Clinical Laboratory Information System

摘要

This paper reports how quantitative and qualitative methods were combined in a case study of a clinical laboratory information system. The study assessed effects of the system on work in the laboratories, as reported by laboratory technologists seven months post implementation. Primary changes caused by the computer system were increases in the amount of paperwork performed by technologists and improvements in laboratory results reporting. Individual technologists, as well as laboratories, differed in their assessments of the system according to their perceptions of how it affected their jobs. The combination of qualitative and quantitative data led to the development of a theoretical explanatory model of these differences. The paper discusses methodological implications and the need for an approach to evaluating medical computer systems that takes into account the inter-relationships and processes of which the system is a part.