COBOL IN THE INFORMATION SYSTEMS CURRICULUM: A DINOSAUR OR AN ENDANGERED SPECIES?

Abstract

National policy decisions about reducing the cost of health care are fueling the movement of patient-care information systems into hospitals and doctors’ offices. Will health care workers willingly adopt these systems? We investigated whether accuracy and privacy issues affect self-efficacy and attitudes towards a patient-care information system just prior to adoption in a regional hospital. We surveyed the nurses, doctors, clinicians and technicians and found that the largest predictor of attitudes towards the system was the perception of data accuracy. The perceptions of accuracy of both the data and the system also influenced the workers’ self-efficacy, or confidence, that the worker can use the system. In an environment where inaccuracy can literally be a life-or-death matter, a focus on accuracy may help the hospital and the nation achieve successful health care systems. Privacy concerns did not have a significant association with either self-efficacy or attitudes towards the system.