Medical record is owned patient’s medical information with privacy. For increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of medical record management, Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) have developed worldwide. However, if information security and privacy problems not regulated well, the development of EMRs will be hinder. To protect the electronic medical record privacy from the hospital’s staff should be equipped with professional cognition and work ethics. The aims of this study were to explore the factors that influenced hospital staff in the privacy protective behavior intention of the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) with the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB).
The cross-sectional survey was carried out with questionnaires among community hospitals in central Taiwan. The questionnaire designed based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Questionnaires are included demographic characteristic, EMRs privacy Attitude (AT), Subjective Norm (SN), Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC) and Behavioral Intention (BI) of hospital staff with SEM analysis.
A total of 375 valid questionnaires were recovered. There were 73 (20.4%) males, 284 samples were female. There were 169 nurses, 47.3%. AT(β=0.61，10.99) and PBC(β=0.39，7.03) of TPB to the Behavior Intention to Protect the EMRs Privacy were positive statistically significant. AT is mostly effectiveness than PBC. But there was negative statistically significant by SN(β=-0.09，-2.32). After adjust by participants’ characteristics, the results were same. Hospital staff with different professional was relate to hospital staffs’ behavior intention (BI).
Our study suggested that the community hospital should elevate hospital staffs’ perceptions about AT and PBC of the EMR privacy protection. Especially according different staffs’ professional and seniority should be remind to engage in these programs. These measures could decrease patient worry about the EMR privacy and be beneficial to the promotion of the EMR even smart hospital in the future.
