Question

Health Informatics:

Write a paper demonstrating the key components to user resistance, what causes resistance and how do we fix it?

Answer 1

“The health informatics is the application of technology both computer hardware and software that deals with information storage, retrieval and sharing of healthcare, data, information, knowledge etc for easy communication and fast decision making.”

Health informatics technologies help reduce error, improve quality of health care, reduce health care costs, increase administrative efficiencies, and help easy access to affordable health care.

“User resistance is defined as resistance or lack of adopting or acceptance of the system by the end users resulting in actual losses of investment and loss of productivity.”

The key sources of user resistance are as follows:

1.Technical: The causes of basic infrastructure that support basic applications and the users such as hardware, networking, operating system, and support.

2. Functional: The functional source of resistance includes the acquisition of data, data storage, and information representation.

3.People: The people involved in providing, managing, or receiving care.

The causes of resistance are as follows:

1.The absence of strategic system planning: The changes in systems are incorporated in a piecemeal manner to meet emergencies and not executed as a whole project in a systematic manner resulting in half-hearted execution and inadequate implementation.

2. Resistance to change and use of IT threatens the organizational stakeholders especially the employees by the changes in the way business is conducted.

3.Low acceptance of technology by health care professionals: The changes in working systems and addition in technology are resisted due to sociological, cultural and organizational factors rather than technological issues.

4.Resistance by the physicians: The physicians who are currently fearing change as it would put power and authority in the lower level healthcare workers and reduce their job importance. Further, the physicians are so happy with the current way of working that they are not receptive to adapting to technology which would put an extra burden on them initially.

5.Fear of Job loss: Resistance due to fear of job loss and reduction in workforce is an additional resistance by the lower levels in the healthcare industry.

Change is essential and important part of the health informatics and can the resistance can be managed as follows:

• Open channels of communication avoiding secrecy and myths around the system by answering and uploading information to employees are essential. They can be informed the changes and the impact of the changes openly.
• Training and orientation of the staff before uploading the project should be executed making everyone feel involved and ready for the change.
• The top level should be involved and support the system from start to end making it easy to execute and implement smoothly.
• The team and the physicians should be uploaded with information on the benefits the change in the system will provide to their job and how the change will benefit their role directly.

To sum it up the IT intervention is critical to improve systems and increase efficiencies but it can be done in a way where the entire team is involved and uploaded with information making them feel part of the change. The fears and apprehensions around the change should be addressed by effective change management strategies.