Technology’s Limitations: a Drawback in Healthcare Information Systems’ Acceptance

In the past recent years the introduction of a Hospital Information System in one of the largest state Greek hospitals took place in two phases: First, the Administrative subsystem (AS) was developed and used productively and later on, the Clinical Information subsystem (CIS) gradually was introduced. When the entire project was delivered, it was realized that although the AS was fully operational and totally accepted by the users, that was not the case with the CIS, which was only partially accepted. The majority of the physicians reacted negatively in the use of the system. Many reasons encountered to justify the medical professionals' negative reaction. Among them is today’s technology limitations with which we deal in this paper. In spite of the lack of legislative and organizational structures that allow the effective acceptance of modernization, technology itself shows certain limitations regarding its adaptation and user friendliness. The current technology status is appropriately receivable for employment into Administrative working Healthcare environments but is not mature enough to support the traditional clinical practice. Further technological improvements are required if it is expected to realize an analogous progress in the use of Information Systems in Clinical departments to that of the Administrative ones. International research in the field of Ubiquitous Computing may bring us to the entrance of a new era.