Leadership Studies Ed.D. Dissertations

Title

Why Physicians Do Or Do not Use Computerized Physician Order Entry Systems: Applying the Technology Acceptance Model

Date of Award

2006

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

Department

Leadership Studies

First Advisor

Patrick Pauken

Abstract

This study addresses post-implementation usage behavior of Computerized Physician Order Entry (CPOE) system among physicians in an organization by applying the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Implementation of CPOE is considered a major organizational activity by chief information officers (Kini & Savage, 2004), and physician acceptance of CPOE ultimately decides the success of CPOE implementation (Davis, 1989). Hence, this study assumes much importance. A CPOE-TAM instrument was developed for this study and assessed with principal component analysis. Six hypotheses were developed and tested using hierarchical multiple regressions.

Study results suggest that the ‘total causal effects’ of perceived usefulness of CPOE (PU) and perceived ease of use of CPOE (PEOU) on behavioral intention to use CPOE (BI) and CPOE adoption are striking, and PU is more important than PEOU in their relative influence on BI and CPOE adoption. Implications of the findings suggest that training sessions need to emphasize ‘usefulness’ of CPOE and any increase in ease of use features of CPOE would directly influence usefulness of CPOE, which in turn influence BI and CPOE adoption. Studying the adoption of CPOE within an organizational context among physicians by applying TAM contributes richly to research literature in these major domains. This CPOE-TAM study was well-validated, and a parsimonious CPOE-TAM instrument is now available to information system and human-computer interaction researchers and practitioners. This CPOE-TAM instrument could be split further into two instruments: one for prediction of future acceptance of CPOE, and the other for explanation of CPOE adoption.

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