INVOLVEMENT OF HEALTHCARE ADMINISTRATORS IN THE PROCESS OF HEALTHCARE DIGITALIZATION

Abstract

Significance. The traditional healthcare system is losing its relevance. Digital transformation of healthcare dictates new conditions to medical organizations, imposing new requirements on healthcare administrators. The purpose of the study is to analyze the attitude of heads of medical organizations in the Arkhangelsk region towards the digital model of healthcare organization. Material and methods. A sociological survey was conducted among heads of the state medical organizations in the Arkhangelsk region. The survey was conducted in the period from March 2021 to August 2022. Representatives of 46 medical organizations took part in the survey including 28 urban and 18 rural organizations. The total number of the respondents added up to 181. A semi-structured questionnaire was used as a research tool, the design was a cross-sectional study. Results. The conducted study shows that 82.3% of the healthcare administrators consider informatization of medical organizations to be successful and show a high level of confidence (95.6%) in information retrieved from medical information systems. In urban areas, the respondents noted a higher level of workplace automation (78.0%), greater need for a personal computer in everyday work (94,9%) and higher frequency of its use (96.6%), and the highest proportion of connection to the medical information system of all departments of a medical organization (94.1%). Healthcare administrators are unanimously positive about replacing the paper medical history/ outpatient records with an electronic equivalent. The main problems related to automation of a medical organization are as follows: insufficient financing of informatization in a medical organization (50.8%), requirements to duplicate electronic information in paper form (48.1%), lack of clear requirements for the implemented information systems (22.7%). Conclusion. The study of attitude of the heads of medical organizations in the Arkhangelsk region towards the digital model of healthcare organizational showed a greater readiness of urban organizations for a standard information interaction in healthcare in the region. To ensure successful work with the medical information systems, healthcare administrators need a supervised on-the-job training by a more experienced colleague. The prospects of digital transformation of healthcare for an individual medical organization are overwhelmingly defined by the electronic document flow between medical organizations.