Awareness, Attitude and Utilization Pattern of Hospital Information System among Healthcare Staff of a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital

Background: Hospital information system (HIS) is a vital component for decision making in various clinical and administrative areas of the hospital, leading to quality patient care and overall development of the organisation. Successful implementation of HIS depends on the awareness, positive attitude, and effective and efficient utilization by the various healthcare providers. Thus this study was carried out with the aim to assess the awareness, attitude and utilization pattern of HIS among the staff of a tertiary care teaching hospital of Karnataka. Method: Self-structured, pre-tested questionnaire that probe into the awareness, attitude, and utilization pattern of HIS among medical, nursing, pharmacists and health information professionals. Descriptive statistics of their awareness, attitude and utilization pattern were calculated. Results and Conclusion: The knowledge of staff regarding basic working of computer was very good while knowledge of advanced technology and documentation standards were found to be below average. Their opinion and attitude towards functioning of current HIS was good and they agreed that it has tremendously helped them in continuing patient care and thus there is regular and optimum utilization. Majority of participants strongly agreed that present HIS has improved documentation, helped in faster data processing, patient treatment and also in education and research, though there is need to upgrade its features so as to meet the changing requirements of different healthcare professionals. But factors like unavailability of trained manpower and past patient electronic details which delay patient care should be looked into to make HIS sustainable.