Analysis of Factors related to the Utilization of a Community Health Posts Information System

Lee, Chung Yul; Bang, Suk Myung

Abstract

A computerized Community Health Posts information system was developed in 1991 by Yonsei University, College of nursing and disseminated to more than four hundred Community Health Posts. The content of was published in the journal, The Korean nurses in 1995, volume 34, number 4. Successful adoption to the computer program is related to many factors, such as personal factors and environmental factors. For the computer program to succeed it must be significantly related to the users and therefore it is necessary to analyze these related factors. This study describes the status of the utilization of computer programs in Community Health posts and analyzed the factors related to utilization of the computer program. Of the 801 community health practitioners, 656 responded and data were analyzed using SPSS computer programs. Respondents were from six provinces and about 85% had been working as CHPs for more than five years and 84.1% had graduated from a community college. Of these 656, 42.1% had a computer and about 60% had funding aid from the community or government. The percentage using the community health post's computer program was 22.3%. Community health practitioners were most often using the following content of the computer program ; treatment activities (65.5%), medication management (53.5%), counselling and education (46.4%), bookkeeping (39.5%), chronic disease management (28%), and insurance billing (15.9%). The factors which were significantly related to the computer utility were degree of support from province, years of working, and age. The Community health practitioners who had more support from the province, who had fewer working years, and were younger used the computer program more frequently.