Physicians' Resistance towards Information Systems in Healthcare: the Case of Workarounds

With the cost of healthcare delivery rising all over the world the way hospitals use their resources stands in the centre of attention in many countries. In order to make best use of doctors and nurses and costly medical appliances etc. the use of information systems plays a vital role. Although all physicians are usually obliged to use the systems anecdotal evidence shows that use-patterns are not always as expected. Some physicians do not like the system and find ways to avoid working with it. They establish so called "workarounds". This research investigates into the root causes of workarounds used by hospital physicians. Based on information systems theories a framework is developed to structure the findings from eight interviews in three hospitals in Germany. The interview partners were assured complete anonymity and thus the interviews were very open. We identified six distinctive types of workarounds and discuss their causes. The setup of this research is of exploratory nature using a grounded theory approach. Our findings underline the existence of workarounds in medical environment and provide guidance how to cope with them.