Characteristics of German hospitals adopting health IT systems - results from an empirical study

Hospital characteristics that facilitate IT adoption have been described by the literature extensively, however with controversial results. The aim of this study therefore is to draw a set of the most important variables from previous studies and include them in a combined analysis for testing their contribution as single factors and their interactions. Total number of IT systems installed and number of clinical IT systems in the hospital were used as criterion variables. Data from a national survey of German hospitals served as basis. Based on a stepwise multiple regression analysis four variables were identified to significantly explain the degree of IT adoption (60% explained variance): 1) hospital size, 2) IT department, 3) reference customer and 4) ownership (private vs. public). Our results replicate previous findings with regard to hospital size and ownership. In addition our study emphasizes the importance of a reliable internal structure for IT projects (existence of an IT department) and the culture of testing and installing most recent IT products (being a reference customer). None of the interactions between factors was significant.