An investigation of healthcare professionals’ intention to use Smart Card Technology

Abstract

Background: Patient records are essential to healthcare professionals access to health information, allow them to assess symptoms and signs across a wider temporal range and improve diagnosis and treatment. The study acknowledged the significance of healthcare informatics such as Smart Card Technology (SCT) in today’s dynamic health systems.

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate factors that influence healthcare professionals’ intentions to use SCT in public healthcare.

Method: The study adopted a quantitative research approach using questionnaire surveys as a means to collect data from a total of 406 healthcare professionals from hospitals in Tshwane.

Results: The findings showed that all of the variables based on the diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory, including behavioural intention (BI), social influence (SI), service quality (SQ), user satisfaction (US), compatibility (C), system use (SU) and information quality (IQ), as well as the health unified theory of acceptance of user technology (HUTAUT), DeLone and McLean’s Information Systems Success (D&M ISS) model, had a positive impact on the intention to use the SCT. Continued use of SCT was positively correlated with user satisfaction and found a favourable correlation between BI and all of the factors.

Conclusion: The healthcare professionals’ intention to utilise SCT was notably impacted by various factors, including SI, SQ, US, C, SU and IQ. These factors collectively influence the intention to utilise the SCT. In addition, these findings show that BI has an impact on the intention to utilise SCT.

Contribution: The results offer a more profound understanding of the variables that impact the use of SCT to improve patient outcomes. In developing countries, public hospitals can enhance their technology acceptance by utilising the SCT adoption framework. Furthermore, this study only included healthcare professionals who worked for public hospitals; to provide a more complete picture of both sectors, future research might concentrate on a target group of healthcare professionals who worked for both public and private hospitals. In addition, future studies should examine patient perceptions regarding the use of SCT in healthcare delivery and the characteristics that encourage patients to adopt and use the technology.