Title: An exploratory study of user resistance in healthcare IT

Authors: Madison N. Ngafeeson; Vishal Midha

Addresses: Walker L. Cisler College of Business, Northern Michigan University, 1401 Presque Isle, Marquette, MI 49855, USA ' Department of Accounting and Business Information System, Illinois State University, Campus Box 5500, Normal IL 61790, USA

Abstract: The US healthcare system is clearly experiencing a major transition. By 2015, the healthcare sector is expected to have migrated from a paper record system to a completely electronic health record (EHR) system. The adoption and use of these systems are expected to increase legibility, reduce costs, limit medical errors and improve the overall quality of healthcare. Hence, the US government is investing $70 billion over a 10-year period to facilitate the transition to an electronic system. However, early reports show that physicians and nurses among other health professionals continue to resist the full use of the system. This paper uses the theory of cognitive dissonance to investigate user resistance in HIT. It builds on a Lapointe and Rivard (2005) framework to offer an explanation as to why people resist HITs. A conceptual model is developed and tested. The findings, implications, and limitations of the study are also discussed.

Keywords: HIT; health information technology; EHRs; electronic health records; electronic medical records; IT user resistance; change management; healthcare technology; theory of cognitive dissonance; e-healthcare; electronic healthcare.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEF.2014.064003

International Journal of Electronic Finance, 2014 Vol.8 No.1, pp.74 - 94

Received: 22 Nov 2013
Accepted: 22 May 2014
Published online: 02 Mar 2015 *

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