Determining the Effective Factors on the Optimal Use of Information Technology in the Health Insurance Industry: A Case Study in Guilan Province

Nowadays organizations are in dynamic environments that continuously change in consideration of economics, politics, social factors, and technology. In this condition it is believed that information technology (IT) can increase the capabilities of organizations, as well as reduce the costs. The aim of this study was to investigate the effective factors, their variables and their impact on the application and use of IT in health insurance organizations in Guilan province.
This cross-sectional study was carried out in 2016. The population study included 45 experts in the health insurance industry in Rasht city and 16 other cities of Guilan province, Iran. Data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire including 6 dimensions of managerial, human source, cultural, environmental, organizational and technological factors. The questionnaires were completed by health insurance industry experts. Then, the collected data were analyzed using the hierarchical analysis process using Expert Choice software version 11.
The findings of the study demonstrated that the ranking of factors (and variables) which affect the optimum use of IT in the health insurance industry from the expert's viewpoints were inclusion of the managerial factor (the variable of motivation and necessary support for managers), the environmental factor (the variable of the existence of an integrated network in the country), organizational factor (the variable of sufficient budget for hardware and software equipment), technological factor (the variable of facilitating the application and use of IT), human source factor (the variable of passing related training courses for staff and reducing staff resistance to change), and cultural factor (the variable of familiarity of people and authorities with IT performance), respectively.
In order to optimize the use of IT in the insurance industry in Guilan province, conducting IT training courses, reducing staff resistance to changes, familiarity with the performance of IT, developing and upgrading hardware and software components are the most important aspects.