Business objectives, hospital characteristics, and the uses of advanced information technology

Structured interviews with the IS managers of four large hospital systems were used to develop propositions regarding the factors which promote IT adoptions and those which inhibit such adoptions. Our interviewees were asked to list the factors which affect IT adoptions in each of the following areas: technology advances, industry structure, medical economics, organizations practices and planning processes, human factors, and government. They were also given a list of eleven IT applications such as CPR, teleradiology, PACS, and telemedicine. For each application, they were asked to provide a numerical score (1 to 10) on its benefit to healthcare quality, funding priority, status or likelihood of adoption, and to list factors which might affect its adoption. Our structured questionnaire, and the selection of hospitals to ensure diverse characteristics, enabled us to develop insights into why IT applications which are viewed as important to healthcare quality are not adopted