Critical factors of hospital adoption on CRM system: Organizational and information system perspectives

The recent rapid increase in the amount of medical information has pushed hospitals to confront an essential issue which is how to utilize healthcare information technology to improve healthcare services quality. Customer relationship management system (CRMS) is an innovative technology which facilitates the process to acquire, develop, and maintain customer relationships more efficiently and effectively. From the business perspective, patients represent the major customers of the hospital who receive and feel the healthcare services directly and realistically. Although the critical factors for the adoption of information systems have been identified in previous studies, few have specifically explored CRMS adoption in hospitals despite the fact that it has dramatic impacts on the quality of healthcare services and customer satisfaction. To fill this gap, this study proposes an integrated model that incorporates both organizational and system related factors as primary determiners of CRMS adoption in hospitals. A series of surveys were conducted with three levels of health institutions in Taiwan: medical centers, regional hospitals, and community hospitals. The results indicated that hospital size, IS capabilities of staff, innovation of senior executives, knowledge management capabilities, and relative advantage have significant influence on the CRMS adoption. The research results also reveal constructive suggestions to researchers, hospitals, CRMS vendors, and the government to increase the likelihood of adopting CRMS.