Organizational Barriers Facing Health Care Professionals in Relation to Health Information Technology - A Review

Abstract

Health care organizations and government agencies have been struggling to optimize the use of health information technology to improve the quality and safety of care and to achieve specific health care goals. Health information technology can be used to enhance care processes, support structured data collection, and improve communication among providers. The challenges of deploying health information technology are dynamic and complex. Not only is implementation difficult for health care organizations in general, but in the health care environment, professionals face specific barriers that must be confronted. These barriers can have a range of interrelated consequences at the individual, professional, and patient levels, including underuse or abandonment of health information technology, high information and communication load, lack of effective information exchange, and inefficient cooperative work.