The Relationship between Hospital Information System and Psychological Empowerment of Hospital Employees

Employee empowerment is a process that requires appropriate conditions in the organization. The application of information systems in the health sector as a pragmatic approach and critical element in empowering employees provides the possibility of enhancement of the capacities and development capabilities of human resources. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the application of hospital information systems (HIS) and psychological empowerment of hospital staff.
This was a descriptive correlational study. The statistical population consisted of 304 staff members of Vali-asr Hospital in Tehran, Iran, who were associated with HIS in 2015. The sample size was determined using the Morgan and Krejcie table. The sample consisted of 170 individuals selected through stratified random sampling. Data were collected via two researcher-made questionnaires. The reliability and validity of these questionnaires were approved by specialists and using Cronbach's alpha coefficient (α = 0.93), respectively. Normality of data was approved by Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics, the Pearson correlation coefficient, and linear regression were used in SPSS software.
The results of the Pearson correlation and linear regression analysis showed a significant positive correlation between HIS use and each component of psychological empowerment (P = 0.001, R = 0.567, R2 = 0.322).
A significant positive relationship was observed between HIS and psychological empowerment of hospital staff. HIS has an effective role in the development and empowerment of human resources in all aspects including increased knowledge, improved performance quality, reinforcement of decision making skills, and staff profession development, increased employment opportunities, and increased self-management responsibility. The development of information technology in the health sector requires the modification of the structure and improvement of appropriate cultural, communicative, and organizational infrastructure.