the effects of information technology on the improvement of health systems in the viewpoint of the staff of beheshti hospital, kashan

introduction: information technology might have some potential effects, such as influencing treatment process, rate and easiness of information retrieval, and information availability for making clinical decisions based on conditions and management, educational and research activities on health service systems. recognizing these effects can be concerned as a foundation to strategic planning in order to improve the approaches of health system and finally to improve general health among the society. methods: this descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in the first half of 2009. it survived the viewpoints of 301 individuals selected by classified sampling method from the staff members of beheshti hospital in kashan toward the influence of information technology on health system. a researcher-developed questionnaire including items about the effects of information technology on treatment, training, research and administrative process. then the data was analyzed by using descriptive and analytical statistical indices in spss 15 . results: the study population included 34.9% females and 65.1% males in all clinical and administrative groups. based on the average score of 365.5, the subjects viewed information technology to have positive effects on the improvement of health level. in addition, the participants evaluated the influence of information technology on increasing the efficiency, decreasing costs and increasing the rate of detection and treatment procedures with average desired scores of 464.1, 311.3 and 434.2, respectively. conclusion: the positive opinions of our population obviously show the appropriate base and background to execute and develop information technology in that hospital. thus, some initial steps must be taken to develop the health information system and to achieve electronic files of patients. to do this, problems and barriers of the application of these technologies must be recognized and some actions should be taken for a correct budgeting and to develop a standard protocol in order to facilitate health information service network.