Towards an IT maturity model for general practice information systems

Abstract

Information technology within general practices has the potential to improve care subsantially. It is however unclear how these benefits can be realized. This research explores the possibility whether a maturity model for general practice information systems can enable the general practices, software vendors and other parties can support them in order to reach these claimed benefits.

Based on a literature study, the IT available for primary care with a focus on general practices are identified. These IT functionalities were laid beside the possibilities of a general practice information system (GPIS) to check whether these functions can be performed by this GPIS. This proved to be the case. From this literature study a classification of the research performed on the subject of primary care was also created, highlighting possible future research on the subject, were research is now lacking.

After the discovery that a GPIS can perform a lot of the IT functions in a general practice, a maturity model was selected through another literature study and was created with the information from the literature study on IT within general practices. Through several use cases and a comparative analysis, this maturity model was tested. From these tests, it was proved that a maturity model could indeed be developed in order to support general practices to improve their GPISs and consequently the IT maturity of the general practice.

Another conclusion from this research is that software vendors and the creators of guidelines for GPISs (such as the NICTIZ) can be benefited as well by this maturity model as it defines the next steps that can be taken to reach a higher maturity level.