Formal Model for e-Healthcare Readiness Assessment in Developing Country Context

The main objective of this paper is to report on a pilot test for a proposed formal model for e-Healthcare readiness assessment. The model provides a tool for determining critical factors of e-Healthcare readiness such as need-change readiness, engagement readiness, structural readiness and, acceptance and use readiness. These factors constitute the main constructs of the model which are formalized as Hierarchical e-Healthcare Readiness Index System. The model was operationalized and pilot tested to determine the e- Healthcare readiness status of healthcare practitioners, the public and patients from communities associated with two healthcare facilities in the Uthungulu Health District of KwaZulu/Natal province of Republic of South Africa (RSA). The result of the pilot testing shows that (i) readiness with acceptance and use appeared to be the most important attribute, followed by structural and then engagement while need-change is the least important, (ii) healthcare practitioners agreed to be e-Healthcare ready while the public and patients fairly agreed and (Hi) the attitude of healthcare practitioners can be determined as a function of their preference for technology usefulness to ease of use. The theoretical framework for the model is drawn from change and change management theories, and IT acceptance and use, and innovation adoption theories.