Assessment of Medical Records Module of Health Information System According to ISO 9241-10

Usability of Emergency Department Information System Based on Users' Viewpoint; a Cross-Sectional Study

INTRODUCTION

The emergency department is of special importance due to its emergency and vital services, the high volume of referrals, and the patients' physical condition. Thus, it requires a well-designed information system with no usability problems. This study aimed to evaluate the usability of the emergency department information system from users' perspectives.

METHODS

This was a cross-sectional study. The research setting was the emergency department of 3 hospitals. The research instrument was a 37-item questionnaire adapted from the USE and ISO Metrics questionnaires, consisting of five dimensions measuring the usefulness of the system, ease of use, ease of learning, user satisfaction, and suitability for the task. The content validity of the questionnaire was examined using the content validity ratio and content validity index, and its reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha (α = 0.88).

RESULTS

Fifty questionnaires were administered in the three hospitals, and the response rate was 80%. According to the findings, 55% of the respondents were female. The highest mean scores belonged to usefulness in emergency department information system (EDIS) A, ease of use in EDIS B, ease of learning in EDIS A, user satisfaction in EDIS C, and suitability for the task in EDIS A. According to the usability evaluation criteria, ease of learning (3.66 ± 0.74), usefulness (3.53 ± 0.87), and suitability for the task (3.47 ± 0.96) received the highest scores, and the lowest scores belonged to user satisfaction (3.29 ± 1.01) and ease of use (3.12 ± 1.00).

CONCLUSION

In terms of usability criteria, the emergency department information system is at a relatively good level. The usability of these systems can be further enhanced by considering the users' working needs, improving software flexibility, customizing the software, using data visualization tools, observing consistency of features and standards, and increasing the quality of information and system services.

Evaluating hospital information system according to ISO 9241 part 12

Objectives

Compliance with standards in designing information systems leads to better utilization and ease of use for users. In this study, the compliance of a widely used hospital information system (HIS) with ISO 9241 part 12 was assessed.

Methods

This applied research is a descriptive, cross-sectional study in which the HIS of 8 hospitals affiliated with Kerman University of Medical Sciences was evaluated based on ISO 9241 part 12. Data were collected by using ISO 9241/12 checklist. The data was analyzed in SPSS 16 using descriptive statistics.

Results

The analysis of data showed that the total compliance of the software with the ISO 9241/12 was 72%. The compliance of the software based on different groups of recommendations was 79% with Organization of information, 91% with Graphic objects, and 58% with Coding techniques. Compliance with different subgroups of ISO recommendations ranged from 28% related to “color coding” in coding techniques to 97% related to “General recommendation for graphical objects” in Graphic objects.

Conclusion

According to this study, the design of a widely used HIS has fairly good compliance with the standard but still suffers from some problems. Considering the role of accurate, valid and timely information in management of the hospitals, and the difficulty of system optimization after implementation, it is necessary that software developers follow existing standards when designing health information systems.

The relationship between user interface problems of an admission, discharge and transfer module and usability features: a usability testing method

Background

The admission, discharge and transfer (ADT) module is used in the hospital information system (HIS) for the purposes of managing appointments, patient admission, daily control of hospital beds, planning surgery procedures, keeping up-to-date on patient discharges, and registering patient transfers within or outside the hospital. The present study aimed to evaluate the usability of ADT module of a HIS through usability testing and assess the relationship between the number of user interface problems and usability features (i.e. effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction).

Methods

This descriptive analytical study was conducted in Shahid Beheshti hospital in Kashan, Iran, in 2017. The participating users were eight students in their last semester of a Bachelor of Health Information Technology Sciences degree. First, the users were introduced to the module functions in a two-hour session; ten days later, the users were asked to perform scenarios designed based on seven tasks and take notes of the problems encountered in performing each task after it was over. Effectiveness was measured based on the rate of completing the tasks, efficiency based on the time taken to perform each task, and satisfaction based on the users’ answers to a satisfaction questionnaire. The relationship between these three usability features and the number of problems noted was assessed using Spearman’s test in SPSS version 16.

Results

Thirteen unique usability problems were identified from the perspective of the users. Effectiveness was rated as 58.9%, efficiency as 53.3%, and mean user satisfaction as 53.4 ± 10.6. The number of problems in each task had significant relationships to the effectiveness (P = 0.009) and efficiency (P = 0.016) scores. User satisfaction also had a significant relationship with the effectiveness (P = 0.043) but not with the efficiency (P = 0.230) scores.

Conclusions

In the view of the potential users, a HIS, used in more than 200 hospitals in a developing country, has several usability problems in its ADT module and its effectiveness, efficiency, and user satisfaction were not acceptable. The number of usability problems in the HIS user interface affected the effectiveness, efficiency and user satisfaction of the system.

Evaluation methods used on health information systems (HISs) in Iran and the effects of HISs on Iranian healthcare: a systematic review

OBJECTIVES

The most important goal of a health information system (HIS) is improvement of quality, effectiveness and efficiency of health services. To achieve this goal, health care systems should be evaluated continuously. The aim of this paper was to study the impacts of HISs in Iran and the methods used for their evaluation.

METHODS

We systematically searched all English and Persian papers evaluating health information systems in Iran that were indexed in SID, Magiran, Iran medex, PubMed and Embase databases until June 2013. A data collection form was designed to extract required data such as types of systems evaluated, evaluation methods and tools.

RESULTS

In this study, 53 out of 1103 retrieved articles were selected as relevant and reviewed by the authors. This study indicated that 28 studies used questionnaires to evaluate the system and in 27 studies the study instruments were distributed within a research population. In 26 papers the researchers collected the information by means of interviews, observations, heuristic evaluation and the review of documents and records. The main effects of the evaluated systems in health care settings were improving quality of services, reducing time, increasing accessibility to information, reducing costs and decreasing medical errors.

CONCLUSION

Evaluation of health information systems is central to their development and enhancement, and to understanding their effect on health and health services. Despite numerous evaluation methods available, the reviewed studies used a limited number of methods to evaluate HIS. Additionally, the studies mainly discussed the positive effects of HIS on health care services.