Barriers to Implementing Electronic Health Records from the Perspective of IT Administrators and Hospital Managers in Kerman

Despite the diffusion of information technology, especially in the health care domain, the development process and use of Electronic Health Record is still difficult; consequently, it is important to identify and eliminate barriers to implementing this system, and adopt effective implementation approaches. This study therefore aimed to determine the barriers to implementing Electronic Health Records in hospitals in Kerman.
In this descriptive, cross-sectional study, conducted in 2015, all IT administrators and managers of hospitals in Kerman were recruited. Data were collected using a researcher made questionnaire, the content and face validity of which was confirmed and its reliability was calculated using internal consistency (α=0.93). Data were analyzed by SPSS 19 using descriptive statistics and an independent samples T-Test.
The highest mean scores of barriers were related to technical and professional barriers (32), and attitude and behavioral barriers (25.1) and the lowest was related to standardization barriers (9.3). None of the barriers were significantly correlated with demographic information (p>0.05). There was a significant correlation between technical and professional, organizational, financial, attitude and behavioral barriers and the implementation of Electronic Health Records in different hospitals (p=0.05).
The most important barriers to implementing Electronic Health Records are technical and professional and attitude-behavioral barriers. In order to overcome these barriers the following strategies are recommended: to implement and use Electronic Health Records, establish an expert team evaluating the potential barriers, and educate senior managers, users and providers.