ABSTRACT
Evaluation of patient care information systems (PCISs) has become increasingly important. Handling the increased complexity of health care processes, many argue, is impossible without the use of PCISs such as electronic patient records,
patient data management systems, physician order entry systems and decision support systems. Many benefits are claimed: such systems will ‘enhance the quality and efficiency of care’, ‘empower the patient’, ‘provide an answer to labour shortages’, ‘help reduce medical errors’ and so forth. Yet such claims can only be validated through evaluation of the performances and the effects of (using) these systems. In addition, the introduction and maintenance of PCISs consumes large amounts of resources and implementation failure is a very traumatic event for an organization. Decision-makers and those who are responsible for the procurement or development of IT are expected to demonstrate that resources spent on IT provide benefits in clinical outcomes, cost savings, and/or to the health care process. Furthermore, evaluation is increasingly important since there is a need to understand the effects of PCIS on the social, professional and organizational context in which they are used.
