Information technology capacities assessment tool in hospitals: instrument development and validation

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Information Systems Research
• Healthcare Management

Background:

• Existing literature on hospital information technology (IT) lacks a unified assessment tool.
• Previous studies identified specific IT measures but did not integrate them comprehensively.
• There is a need for a validated instrument to measure IT capacities in healthcare settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To integrate existing literature on hospital IT.
• To propose and validate a comprehensive IT capacities assessment tool for hospitals.
• To provide a psychometrically sound instrument for measuring IT sophistication in healthcare.

Main Methods:

• Conducted a comprehensive literature review on Medline until September 2006.
• Mapped identified IT indicators to develop a comprehensive assessment instrument.
• Tested the instrument through a survey of 221 Canadian healthcare organizations, achieving a 52.2% response rate.

Main Results:

• Seventeen studies yielded indicators of clinical and administrative IT capacities.
• Developed a 58-item instrument covering computerized processes, technologies, and information sharing.
• The survey results demonstrated good reliability and validity of the IT capacities assessment tool.

Conclusions:

• This study unifies existing work on hospital IT capacities.
• Presents the psychometric properties of a novel IT capacities assessment tool.
• The developed scores facilitate further research on IT determinants and impacts in hospitals.