Abstract
Problems related to inappropriate use of hospital information systems (HISs) have been reported in many hospitals for a long time. Despite various countermeasures, the situation has not improved. While education and public relations are important, it is also necessary to consider whether there exists the possibility that the function and/or operation of the HIS could induce improper behavior from the system user. Therefore, in order to accurately recognize the root causes of such problems, a conceptual model characterized by the following four points is proposed: (1) integrated management of the problems related to the use of the HIS such as helpdesk inquiry data and incident reports; (2) recognizing that system user behavior/function, performance, equipment/operation/education, and public relations/leadership of the organization are the potential root causes of the problems; (3) gathering information about the causalities of the problems and the skill of the participants; (4) management of the changes in the recognition of the potential root causes over time. A simple tool based on this conceptual model was constructed, and used to analyze the incident reports (107 events) of hospital X and the helpdesk inquiry data (15 events) of hospital Y in 2014, resulting in confirmation of the usefulness of the conceptual model.
