Factors affecting physicians' use of medical informatic system

Implementation of medical informatic system in Taiwan is still at its growing phase. Despite the advance of information technology, physician's acceptance and satisfaction of the use of them is very critical for the success of the investment. This study first examines the quality recognition of medical information systems used at Tzu-Chi Hospital in Taiwan of 135 physicians, and then explores the factors preventing physicians from using medical information systems.;This study used self-reporting questionnaire to collect physicians' responses. With the support of Tzu-Chi hospital, 127 usable responses were collected. Descriptive and step-wise multiple regression were used to analyze the data.;This study finds that laboratory information system and PACS system were deemed to have highest correlation to improve quality of care with a 4.61 average score by doctors. On-line consultation though was deemed to have less impact on quality improvement with a score of 3.63 in a scale of 1 to 5.;Low transmission speed and system down-time were considered most irritating factors for physicians to use information systems with an average 4.35 and 4.22 scores. Data security problems also bothered doctors with a mean score of 4.1, while lack of standardized transmission platform across specialties make it difficult for physicians to exchange medical record got a score of 3.77. Physicians did not consider lack of computer training as well as too busy from daily work to be the reasons that prevented them from using informatic systems with scores of 2.46, 2.57 accordingly.;It turned out that age in the group of 41--50 as well as workload in the group of inpatient 16 and over group were significant variables in the modeling. Age and workload had negatively correlated to physicians' quality recognition of medical information systems.