Paradigm shifts in recordkeeping responsibilities: implications for ISO 15489's implementation

An exploratory study of electronic medical record implementation and recordkeeping culture: the case of hospitals in Indonesia

BACKGROUND

The digitization of healthcare, through electronic medical records (EMRs), is recognized globally as a transformative initiative. Indonesia mandated all healthcare facilities to adopt EMRs by December 31, 2023. However, this transition is complicated by diverse technological, cultural, and infrastructural challenges, with little research addressing the recordkeeping culture's impact on EMR adoption. This study investigates the electronic recordkeeping culture in Indonesian hospitals following a government mandate to adopt Electronic Medical Records (EMRs). It aims to understand the readiness and challenges in implementing EMRs across hospitals on Java and Sulawesi islands, focusing on infrastructure, staff digital skills, and varied adoption approaches.

METHODS

A qualitative case study approach was utilized, involving focus groups and semi-structured interviews with 150 staff from 12 hospitals. Conducted between November 2023 and June 2024, the study applied thematic analysis based on Oliver and Foscarini's (2020) recordkeeping culture framework to explore organizational readiness, technological infrastructure, and healthcare professionals' skills in managing electronic records.

RESULTS

The findings reveal significant differences in EMR adoption between the islands. Hospitals on Java exhibited proactive engagement, supported by better technological infrastructure and staff training programs, while Sulawesi hospitals adopted EMRs primarily to meet regulatory requirements. Challenges included inconsistent internet connectivity, low digital literacy among staff, and ongoing reliance on paper records during the transition. Some Java hospitals have begun fostering a culture conducive to electronic recordkeeping by focusing on developing staff skills in EMR management.

CONCLUSIONS

The effectiveness of EMR adoption in Indonesia relies on addressing technological infrastructure issues and enhancing staff digital literacy. While progress has been made, particularly in more developed regions, a cohesive national strategy emphasizing technological support and targeted training is essential to fully realize the benefits of EMRs in improving healthcare and recordkeeping standards across Indonesia.

Information culture and recordkeeping: a case of Chinese enterprises

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to report findings from an investigation on the information culture and recordkeeping in two Chinese companies, exploring the interaction between information culture and recordkeeping.

Design/methodology/approach

On the basis of systematic literature review, this research investigates the information culture and recordkeeping in two Chinese companies by conducting in-depth interviews with the staff of the two companies.

Findings

The attitude of the leadership and the staff towards records and information is different in the result-oriented information culture and rule-following culture. If a company aims to stay innovative and competitive, an information culture that can facilitate the good governance of records and information should be developed, and information professionals can play a key role in working towards this.

Originality/value

As a qualitative study of information culture and recordkeeping in Chinese companies, this paper provides the insight into the interaction between information culture and recordkeeping, demonstrates the impact of information culture on information governance and identifies the factors influencing information culture in an organization.

Records management and performance of procurement management units in Tanzania: a case study

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the influence of records management on the performance of procurement management units (PMUs) in Tanzania.

Design/methodology/approach

To meet the objective of the study, cross-sectional survey design and quantitative approaches were used for data collection and analysis. Preliminary analysis of the data was carried out using descriptive statistics and structural equation modelling was then used to analyse the influence of records management standards on procurement performance. The data were collected from 164 government PMUs in Tanzania.

Findings

The findings revealed that records management attributes significantly affect procurement performance in Tanzania. Furthermore, government policy and integrity factors confound the association between records management and procurement performance.

Practical implications

The policymakers and practitioners of public procurement are required to be aware of records management principles and how each related factor influences the performance of PMUs. They should emphasise proper storage and housing, equipment, arrangement and access and implement electronic records management.

Originality/value

This study shows how the ISO 15489 model can be applied to public procurement processes. This study also provides the lesson that procurement records need to be protected to ensure their authenticity, reliability, integrity and useability.

La gestión documental en los modelos de gobernanza TIC: presencia y visibilidad de la normativa internacional en el modelo de referencia COBIT

La gobernanza y gestión de servicios y sistemas de información disponen de una serie de normas que reúnen las mejores prácticas desarrolladas por instituciones y empresas. Esta experiencia se presenta en la forma de marcos de referencia que definen objetivos, indicadores y procesos, y que se pueden usar como guía para definir los procesos internos y comparar la actuación de las organizaciones con las buenas prácticas de la industria. Entre ellos destacan el modelo COBIT desarrollado por ISACA (Information Systems Audit and Control Association) y la norma internacional ISO/IEC 38500, dedicados a la gobernanza TIC. En este artículo se analiza la presencia de las prácticas de gestión documental en el marco del modelo COBIT y la visibilidad de las normas específicas de gestión de documentos ISO 15489 e ISO 30300 en el mismo.

The adoption of electronic records management system (ERMS) in the Yemeni oil and gas sector

Purpose

Identification of factors for electronic records management system (ERMS) adoption is important as it allows organizations to focus their efforts on these factors to ensure success. The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that influence ERMS adoption in the Yemeni oil and gas (O&G) sector.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper conducts a systematic literature review (SLR) to extract the most common factors that could facilitate successful ERMS adoption. Information technology (IT) experts were asked to rank the extracted factors via an e-mail questionnaire and to recommend specific critical success factors that must be given extra attention to increasing the success of ERMS adoption. Essentially, the proposed methodology is technology-organization-environment (TOE) modeling to examine the important factors influencing decision-makers in the Yemeni O&G sector regarding ERMS adoption.

Findings

This paper identifies factors influencing ERMS adoption based on SLR and an expert-ranking survey. The data that were collected from IT experts were analyzed using the statistical package for the social sciences. The results showed that only 12 out of 20 factors were significant. The experts then added three new factors, resulting in 15 significant factors classified into the three dimensions as follows: technology, organization and environment.

Originality/value

Limited studies have been carried out in the context of the O&G sector, even among developed countries such as Canada, the UK and Australia. These studies have focused on a limited number of factors for ERMS adoption targeting better utilization of human resources, faster and more user-friendly system responses and suitability for organizational ease. This paper explores the factors that may prove useful in adopting of ERMS in the O&G sector of developing countries, similar to Yemen.

Visualizing information in the records and archives management (RAM) disciplines

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the concept of information in records and archives management (RAM) from a fresh, visual perspective by using arts-informed methodology and the draw-and-write technique.

Design/methodology/approach

Students and practitioners of RAM in Australia were asked to answer the question, “what is information?” in a drawing and then to describe the drawing in words. This produced a data set of 255 drawings of information or “iSquares”, for short. Compositional interpretation and a framework of graphic representations by Engelhardt were applied to determine how participants envision information and what the renderings imply for RAM.

Findings

The images reveal an overwhelming recognition in RAM of the diversity of media formats of information and the hyperconnectivity of information in networked information systems; and illustrate the central place of human beings within these systems. These findings offer striking, accessible illustrations of major concepts in RAM and enable new understandings through the construction of stories.

Practical implications

There are both pedagogical applications and practical implications of this work for students, practitioners and knowledge workers. The graphical representations of information in this research deepen the understanding of textual definitions of information. The data set of iSquares provides opportunities to create new storyboards to explain information definitions, practices and phenomena in RAM disciplines, and, to explain related concepts such as data, information, knowledge and wisdom hierarchy.

Originality/value

This is the first study in RAM disciplines to provide visual illustrations of information using graphical image representations.

Methods, methodology and madness

Purpose

This paper aims to present findings from a recent study examining current records management as fit for digital government in Australia.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper draws on findings from the first phase of research for a postdoctoral degree. This research was collected through an online quantitative survey of government records management professionals in Australia. The survey’s purpose was to understand whether the profession has kept pace with advances in, and expectations of, digital government. Building on the findings of the survey, this paper explores the concepts of methodology and methods and applies them to current digital records management in the Australian Government. Methodology for Australian Government digital records management is contained in the 2015 Digital Continuity 2020 policy. However, measuring method proved more difficult. The researcher supplemented data published by the National Archives of Australia and the Department of Finance with data from her own research to measure the validity of methods by examining suitability of current requirements.

Findings

Australian Government records management professionals overwhelmingly feel requirements, organisational culture and behaviour form a barrier to implementing successful records management programs. This paper finds that the Australian Government is buying ten times more digital storage per year than the sum of all of the digital Australian Government records known. This suggests perhaps not all records are recognised. While there will always be more storage than records, the ratio should not be so inflated. Further problems are found with requirements for records management being seen as mostly paper-based and too resource intensive to be of use. This research, combined with a contemporary literature review, shows that there is an imbalance with the current methodology and methods and asks the question: Has a methodology (Digital Continuity 2020) been created without suitable and known methods being in place?

Research limitations/implications

The method for collecting survey data was based on self-reporting, which can lead to limitations in that the population sample may exaggerate their response or demonstrate bias. However, responses to the survey were common enough to eliminate bias. The study is based on the Australian Government; however, findings may translate to other governments. This paper presents findings from the first phase of research of a postdoctoral degree. Not all findings are presented, only those relevant to the topic.

Originality/value

As the Australian Government moves to become a true digital government, records management is still required to ensure accountability of government actions and decisions. However, while the government transitions to digital, and information stores continue to grow, the question of whether records management has kept up with the rapid pace of digital information flow and expansion does not need to be asked. Instead, the time has come to ask, “What can we do to keep up?”

Assisting the appraisal of e-mail records with automatic classification

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate how automatic classification can assist employees and records managers with the appraisal of e-mails as records of value for the organization.

Design/methodology/approach

The study performed a qualitative analysis of the appraisal behaviours of eight records management experts to train a series of support vector machine classifiers to replicate the decision process for identifying e-mails of business value. Automatic classification experiments were performed on a corpus of 846 e-mails from two of these experts’ mailboxes.

Findings

Despite the highly contextual nature of record value, these experiments show that classifiers have a high degree of accuracy. Unlike existing manual practices in corporate e-mail archiving, machine classification models are not highly dependent on features such as the identity of the sender and receiver or on threading, forwarding or importance flags. Rather, the dominant discriminating features are textual features from the e-mail body and subject field.

Research limitations/implications

The need to automatically classify corporate e-mails is growing in importance, as e-mail remains one of the prevalent recordkeeping challenges.

Practical implications

Automated methods for identifying e-mail records promise to be of significant benefit to organizations that need to appraise e-mail for long-term preservation and access on demand.

Social implications

The research adopts an innovative approach to assist employees and records managers with the appraisal of digital records. By doing so, the research fosters new insights on the adoption of technological strategies to automate recordkeeping tasks, an important research gap.

Originality/value

Our experiment show that a SVM classifier can be trained to replicate an expert's decision process for identifying e-mails of business value with a reasonably high degree of accuracy. In principle, such a classifier could be integrated into a corporate Electronic Document and Records Management System (EDRMS) to improve the quality of e-mail records appraisal.

Procurement records compliance, effective risk management and records management performance

Purpose

– Procurement records are critical for the effective execution of the procurement process and have been applied as tools to measure compliance and performance of Public Procuring and Disposing Entities (PDEs) by the regulating authority in Uganda – the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA). However, the state of records in various Ugandan PDEs depicts poor records management. This situation has adversely affected the effective creation, usage and storage of public procurement records. This compromises the value and importance of records within the procurement process, with most documents being unavailable and unreliable. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between procurement records compliance, effective risk management and records management performance in Ugandan PDEs.

Design/methodology/approach

– The study adopted a quantitative research design and used a cross-sectional survey. The researchers developed a questionnaire on the study constructs of procurement records compliance, effective risk management and records management performance using measurement scales derived from previous empirical studies which were modified to suit the current study.

Findings

– The results indicate quantitative evidence of significant positive relationships between procurement records compliance, effective risk management and records management performance. Findings also reveal that procurement records compliance and effective risk management are significant predictors of record management performance. The results also suggest that effective risk management has a stronger influence on records management performance than that on procurement records compliance.

Research limitations/implications

– The study context is sub-Saharan Africa, and the findings are, therefore, limited to that context; they reflect existing knowledge in other contexts. The use of a standard questionnaire limited the ability to collect views about information outside the questions asked. The study was only cross-sectional, and the study variables could not be analyzed over a long time. Common methods bias remains a potential threat; future studies should use different source data.

Practical implications

– Custodians of procurement records, that is, procurement officers, records officers and accounting officers for Ugandan PDEs need to pay special attention to prevailing records laws and policies to minimize risks associated with the poor management of records, as well as improve performance in the management of records creation, storage, retrieval, access and the preservation of vital records.

Originality/value

– The study contributes to an important area which has not been given attention in the context of sub-Saharan Africa, especially Uganda where there is a difficulty of linking the value of records management to business processes due to a lack of quantitative evidence.

User difficulties working with a business classification scheme: a case study

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to provide a unique perspective into user difficulties working with the functional business classification scheme (BCS) to register, search and retrieve corporate information at the Western Australia Police (WA Police).

Design/methodology/approach

– This paper is a single case study. Questionnaire and interview data were collected and analysed from a sample of ten EDRMS users on their perspectives of working with the BCS. An interpretive analysis methodology was used, and inductive reasoning was used for thematic analysis and sense making of the textual data from the transcripts.

Findings

– Although the research participants were confident working with the BCS, they reported difficulties finding an appropriate folder that matched the information to be classified and deciding where to file the information. Participants reported that the design and structure of the BCS and training were identified as areas needing improvement.

Research limitations/implications

– Paradigm shifts in the record-keeping role from the professional to the user may have some bearing on the difficulties users face when dealing with their record-keeping responsibilities. The participants provided comments and suggestions for how to make the BCS more user-friendly, more meaningful and more aligned to the business processes of the users that are practicable and workable solutions for the records professionals to implement.

Practical implications

– This paper provides a unique user perspective of a BCS, their difficulties working with it and how these difficulties can be resolved in a government organisation.

Originality/value

– This paper provides a unique user perspective of a BCS, their difficulties working with it and how these difficulties can be resolved in a government organisation.

Managing forensic DNA records in a divided world: the Belgian case

Purpose

– This paper aims to describe the activity of managing records related to forensic DNA identification. First, it illustrates the fundamentals behind the technique of forensic DNA identification. Second, it explains the legal and institutional contexts in which it is used as well as the notion of DNA-based judicial records. Third, it provides details of records management issues that are met in practice.

Design/methodology/approach

– An interdisciplinary team reflects upon the practices surrounding the management of DNA-based records in the Belgian National DNA database during more than 10 years.

Findings

– The main problems with managing DNA-based judicial records stem from the existence of natural boundaries between the various stakeholders operating with or within the Belgian judicial system. Six types of issues have been found: non-automaticity and omission, error-prone and inefficient manual operations, electronic issues, results quality, useful reporting and incoherence and duplication. These problems are discussed in terms of four records characteristics: completeness, correctness, traceability and usability.

Research limitations/implications

– The research is limited to the Belgian case with no comparison with other countries.

Practical implications

– This paper attempts to formulate general principles that aim to stimulate good practices in managing records in the field of criminal justice.

Social implications

– The ethical issues surrounding the domain of criminal policy (e.g. the proper use of financial resources, the fair and balance use of records to carry out justice) are of general interest to the public.

Originality/value

– The paper benefits from a large temporal angle (more than 10 years) and applies a multidisciplinary viewpoint on its subject.

Factors impacting information governance in the mobile device dual‐use context

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to reveal factors that impact information governance within the mobile technology implementation in organizations in the dual‐use context.

Design/methodology/approach

Case study methodology was used and 15 semi‐structured interviews were conducted with records and information management (RIM) and information security professionals from different types of organizations.

Findings

There are three main findings. First, stakeholder support is critical to drive the change and leverage organizational security culture. Second, records mobility with data security dimension represents the biggest challenge for RIM stakeholders. Third, mobile strategy and security framework are two must‐win areas for a successful mobile implementation.

Research limitations/implications

The paper does not include any end‐user perspective in interviews and this end‐user context is missing.

Practical implications

Awareness through education and training of employees needs to be given very particular attention in the future mobile implementations. Moreover, management and employee support is the critical component of the effective information security governance framework implementation. Finally, mobile strategy needs undergo a very precise and detailed planning process to ensure the right technology acceptance by users.

Originality/value

The paper closes an existing research gap and provides useful insights to record management professionals and practitioners on factors that impact effective information governance implementation within the mobile dual‐use context.