Developing electronic medical records (EMR) framework for Malaysia´s public hospitals

Today, the usage of information technology (IT) in healthcare sector including public hospitals has become more widespread. IT tools such as Electronic Medical Records (EMR) have been found to improve the efficiency of hospital services especially in terms of patient data management. However, only several public hospitals in Malaysia are using the EMR system to manage their filing system. Therefore, this paper discusses the issues that arise in adopting the EMR among public hospitals, and proposes a framework of EMR adoption for Malaysia´s public hospitals. In this paper, the EMR system is discussed in general. Theories related to technology adoption are also discussed in general. Moreover, issues concerning the adoption of EMR system in previous studies are also discussed. These issues include cost-related issues, technology-related issues, knowledge-related issues, human-related issue, and legal issues. These issues may influence the adoption of EMR to improve healthcare quality service. Consequently, EMR Adoption Model for public hospitals is proposed. The framework model might provide a guideline to Malaysia´s public hospitals to adopt and use the EMR system successfully while simultaneously reducing the present problems of the adoption.