Investigation of the influencing factors of primary care physicians' intention to adopt new technologies for medical appointment management

Abstract

Long patient waiting times are a major concern within primary health care clinics, causing lower patient dissatisfaction and health care quality. Within several other industries, mobile queuing systems that use real-time order fulfilment are used to address similar issues. Due to the enormous potential user base that is associated with it, the primary health care sector represents a significant market opportunity, and the question arises as to what is necessary for such software systems to be adopted there as well. For this, the decisionmaking process of the practice managing physicians, as decisionmakers, needs to be examined. Objective The purpose of this study is to identify the influencing factors for primary care physicians’ intention to use new appointment management systems that are based on real-time mobile queueing. Thereby, valuable insights for potential future development and promotion shall be derived. Methods An adapted and extended version of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) was developed as conceptual research model. A scenario-based survey experiment was chosen to answer the research hypotheses and questions. Results The most important factor for the usage intention of physicians is Performance Expectancy. Furthermore, Options of Employees, Patients and Competitors were also found to have a significant influence on the usage intention of physicians. The paradox relationship between physician as decision-maker and patients as primary subject to potential advantage, was identified as most crucial aspect of adoption. Keywords Patient waiting time, primary health care, mobile queueing, UTAUT, technology acceptance, diffusion of Innovation, real-time tracking