Acceptance of E-Prescriptions and Automated Medication-Management Systems in Hospitals: An Extension of the Technology Acceptance Model

The serious repercussions of heath care errors on patient safety have led hospitals to deploy corrective information technologies. Hospitals are moving away from traditional paper-based systems and focusing on designing new methods that reduce errors, using information technology to catalyze the reengineering process. This paper analyzes the intention of health care personnel (physicians and nurses) to use e-prescriptions and automated medication-management systems (EPAMMS), identifying influencing factors. Understanding these factors provides the opportunity to explore which actions might be carried out to boost adoption by potential users. The theoretical grounding for this research is the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). TAM specifies the causal relationships between perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and actual usage behavior. The proposed model has seven constructs; we have generated 11 hypotheses from connections among these seven constructs. These constructs include perceived compatibility, perceived usefulness to enhance control systems, training, and perceived risks. Our results provide support for a number of relationships in the hypothesized model.