Evaluating the Impact of Eliminating Health Booklets and Replacing E-prescription in terms of the Staff of the SSO Out-patient Medical Centers in Tehran City.

One of the important activities of theSocialSecurityOrganization inrecent years is the elimination of health booklet from the SSO direct health system and replacing the electronic prescription. This article is a report of a study that evaluates the elimination of health booklet from the SSO direct health system and the use of the new HIS system and electronic prescription from the perspective of medical staff.

In this regard, the outcome of implementing the new system has beenevaluated on the basis of: a) Improving efficiency and productivity including decrease of the paper consumption and medical devices; reducing errors in prescription and medicine interactions; documentation and access to medical records; speed and accuracy of services; improving work discipline; and reducing the possibility of misuse of the health booklet; b)   Improving relationships including the relationships between the employees and overhead authorities (high managers); the relationships between the high managers; the potential impact on organizational sensitivities and job satisfaction. For this purpose, the staff of 16 SSO outpatient clinics in Tehran was considered as a total on the day of questioning in each clinic, of which, finally 423 people answered the questionnaire.

Findings indicate that most respondents (52.8%) initially agreed toeliminate the health booklet and replace the new HIS system. Employees also anticipated that the elimination of health booklet would improve various aspects of their work and environment (including efficiency, productivity, and the relationship between employees and patients and with each other) and pessimism rate was very weak around 7% of the respondents. In other words, it can be stated that the majority of the respondents not only had a positive approach towards the impact of eliminating the health booklets on their working and communication procedures, but also evaluated the current situation positively.

However, the average result of the assessment is somewhat lowerthan the average of the expected result, but the final outcome is the positive approach and satisfaction of the medical staff on elimination of the health booklets and replacing the e-prescription.