Pilot Study Report: Analysis of Hospital Information Systems Usage

This report details a pilot study conducted to assess the usage and reliability of hospital information systems (HIS). The study employed exploratory research design and interpretivism research philosophy, utilizing a qualitative approach with secondary data collection. The methodology included a pilot test on a dataset of 579 liver patients, with Cronbach's alpha calculated to determine data reliability. The analysis revealed an unacceptable Cronbach's alpha value of .457, indicating that the selected research methodology was not appropriate for the study. The report concludes that the data set and the qualitative approach were insufficient for a large-scale study, highlighting the need for revised methods to achieve reliable and useful results regarding HIS usage in healthcare. The study emphasizes the importance of preliminary testing to validate the feasibility of research methods and data reliability.

Pilot study
1

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY....................................................................................................3
Pilot testing......................................................................................................................................5
Analysis...........................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
2

INTRODUCTION
In present times, it is necessary to provide effective and better health care services to
people. With covid 19 pandemic it has led to focus on improving health care infrastructure.
However, technology is playing significant role in improving quality of services and reaching
out more people to provide them primary care services. In hospitals technological system are
installed to make operations easy (Bonaz, Sinniger, and Cracowski, 2016). It is used in various
types of purpose. Moreover, it has become necessary to maintain data records and history of
patients so that care services are offered to them properly. For that patient information system is
used in hospitals. The system store and protect patient data and info in effective way. So, with
use of this it becomes easy to analyse patient history and records. So, accordingly they are
given treatment. The use of system is increasing as it has enabled in managing and maintaining
record of patient. Thus, information is effectively evaluated and analysed. Along with it, there is
change in handling of patient and maintaining records. Many times, due to unavailability of
resources and lack of information it becomes extremely difficult for administrative staff of the
hospital to manage admission of the patients. Many times, due to lack of information slots
provided to patients are already booked or healthcare professions to whom patients are referred
are already busy/ preoccupied or are unavailable.
Thus, a pilot study has been conducted to find out usage of hospital information systems.
For that large scale survey will be conducted and then data and info will be gathered to obtain
relevant outcomes. The purpose of pilot study is to test reliability by selecting own data set
(Bousquet, Caimmi and Chavannes, 2017).
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In order to conduct study, it requires different types of research methods in it. The use of
method enable in providing a framework on how research has to be conducted. Besides it gives
insight to user that what methods are used in it. This is because the use of research methods
depends on nature and type of study. Similarly, for present study there are different methods that
is used in it. They are defined as below ;
Research Design
It is a strategy which is used for integration of research elements so that main problem of the
research is addressed (In, ,2017). There are three types of research design: exploratory,
descriptive and casual. Exploratory is used for exploring aim and objective in order to answer the
3

research question, Descriptive is used for describing all the elements of the research whereas,
casual is used to study relationship between cause and effect variables. For this research
exploratory research will be used as it will help the researcher in answering all the research
questions in an effective manner. Also, it will be useful in exploring that what changes are to be
done in health care.
Research philosophy
It deals with nature, source and development of knowledge. There are four main type of research
philosophies: pragmatism, interpretivism, realism and positivism. Pragmatism focuses only on
accepting a concept if it is relevant to an action. Positivism focuses on adhering factual
knowledge by gaining observation (Chen, LIU,. and QIAN, 2020). Realism focuses on relies on
the idea of independence of reality from the human mind. Whereas, interpretivism focuses on
interpreting elements of the study. For this research, researcher will be using interpretivism
research philosophy as it will help the researcher in interpreting all the elements associated with
the research.
Research approach – this consists of framework in order to analyse and evaluate data and info.
Through that it becomes easy to conduct study in effective way. Inductive and deductive are two
approach in it. in inductive new theory is developed with help of analyzing of data and info in
efficient way. However, in deductive previous theory is analysed in effective way. Thus, in this
study inductive approach will be used as it is based on observations new theory is proposed at
the end of the research (Justice, Nambiar, and Kirkland, 2019).
Research type- in this method the overall research is divided into various types that is aims,
research question, hypothesis, etc. the scholar must identify research type so that on basis of it
data is gathered. If type is not identified the it is difficult to carry out further research.
Generally, there are two research type that is qualitative and quantitative. In qualitative only
theoretical data is gathered. There is no numeric data or facts presented in it. Basically, it means
to select secondary data. In quantitative data is collected of facts and numeric. This research will
be qualitative type. The data gathered will be non numeric about use of patient information
system in hospitals.
Data collection- it is an important element in research. this is process of collection of data from
relevant sources. Here, data needs to be gathered properly as entire outcomes of study is based
on it. Also, sources needs to be reliable as well in it. there are two method in it that is primary
4

and secondary. Primary is used to gather first time data. there are several sources in it that is
interview, survey, etc. In secondary previous data is collected from journals, articles, etc. in this
study, secondary data collection method will be used. The data regarding use of patient
information system in hospital is gathered and analysed. Also, as it is qualitative research so
secondary method is applied. (Shah, Allegretti, and Fasano, 2019)
Data analysis – the data analysis is procedure to interpret data to obtain useful info and results. It
depends on nature and type of study that what technique will be relevant in it. there are different
methods available in it. moreover, scholar must have knowledge about use of technique in
interpreting results as well. There are two techniques in it that is thematic and statistical. In this
study thematic data analysis method is used. As in this type of analysis data is divided or
segregated in different themes that can be used for analysis.
Thus, these research methods were used for doing pilot study and in this data was
collected from data set. It gave insight on whether study can be proceeded further or not.
Pilot testing
In order to conduct study at large scale it is necessary to do pilot testing. This is done to get
an insight on whether own data selected is reliable or not of use of hospitality information
systems in hospitals. Besides that, pilot study is done to evaluate cost, duration, etc of entire
study to measure its performance (Villwock, Sobin, and Harris, 2016). Therefore, pilot study
was conducted for this study and here small data set was selected of liver patient. Then, data
was analysed to test its reliability. Thus, for this cronbach alpha was calculated on to find out
whether data is reliable or not. Moreover, pilot study was essential to do so that further data is
collected from large number of participants. Usually, in doing of large research pilot study it
done that enables in showing whether study is feasible or not. Apart from it, study test whether
method selected for research is suitable or not and how much time is needed to conduct study.
For present pilot study 579 patient who are suffering from liver problem were selected and their
data was collected. Basically, pilot study is done in medical research because this study is
conducted at large scale and it takes a lot of time to do so. It is necessary to do small study
which allows in analyzing of data in effective way and it is reliable or not (Wu, Wang, and Jin,
2018)
Case Processing Summary
5

N %
Cases
Valid 579 99.3
Excludeda 4 .7
Total 583 100.0
a. Listwise deletion based on all variables in the
procedure.
Reliability Statistics
Cronbach's
Alpha
Cronbach's
Alpha Based on
Standardized
Items
N of Items
.457 .434 9
Item Statistics
Mean Std. Deviation N
Age 44.7824 16.22179 579
Totalbilirubin 3.3154 6.22772 579
Directbilirubin 1.4941 2.81650 579
AlkalinePhosphotase 291.3661 243.56186 579
AlamineAminotransferase 81.1261 183.18284 579
AspartateAminotransferase 110.4145 289.85003 579
TotalProtiens 6.4817 1.08464 579
Albumin 3.1385 .79443 579
AlbuminandGlobulinRatio .9471 .31959 579
Inter-Item Correlation Matrix
age totalbilirubin directbilirubin AlkalinePhospho
tase
AlamineAminotr
ansferase
Age 1.000 .011 .007 .079 -.088
Totalbilirubin .011 1.000 .874 .206 .213
Directbilirubin .007 .874 1.000 .234 .233
AlkalinePhosphotase .079 .206 .234 1.000 .125
6

AlamineAminotransferase -.088 .213 .233 .125 1.000
AspartateAminotransferase -.020 .237 .257 .167 .792
TotalProtiens -.186 -.008 .000 -.027 -.042
Albumin -.264 -.222 -.228 -.163 -.029
AlbuminandGlobulinRatio -.216 -.206 -.200 -.234 -.002
Inter-Item Correlation Matrix
AspartateAminotran
sferase
TotalProtiens albumin AlbuminandGlobulin
Ratio
Age -.020 -.186 -.264 -.216
Totalbilirubin .237 -.008 -.222 -.206
Directbilirubin .257 .000 -.228 -.200
AlkalinePhosphotase .167 -.027 -.163 -.234
AlamineAminotransferase .792 -.042 -.029 -.002
AspartateAminotransferase 1.000 -.026 -.085 -.070
TotalProtiens -.026 1.000 .783 .235
Albumin -.085 .783 1.000 .690
AlbuminandGlobulinRatio -.070 .235 .690 1.000
Item-Total Statistics
Scale Mean if
Item Deleted
Scale Variance if
Item Deleted
Corrected Item-
Total Correlation
Squared Multiple
Correlation
Age 498.2835 298452.156 -.006 .087
Totalbilirubin 539.7505 296574.937 .294 .766
Directbilirubin 541.5718 297592.108 .329 .779
AlkalinePhosphotase 251.6997 203180.321 .164 .105
AlamineAminotransferase 461.9398 169652.258 .632 .645
AspartateAminotransferase 432.6514 105974.215 .576 .644
TotalProtiens 536.5842 298662.591 -.044 .821
Albumin 539.9274 298729.655 -.137 .902
AlbuminandGlobulinRatio 542.1188 298663.788 -.151 .733
Item-Total Statistics
Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted
Age .465
Totalbilirubin .460
Directbilirubin .462
7

AlkalinePhosphotase .480
AlamineAminotransferase .175
AspartateAminotransferase .138
TotalProtiens .465
Albumin .465
AlbuminandGlobulinRatio .465
Scale Statistics
Mean Variance Std. Deviation N of Items
543.0659 298611.268 546.45335 9
Interpretation- Here, from pilot study it is analysed that the cronbach’s alpha value .457 which
means that it is unacceptable. So, the data set collected and analysed is not acceptable for future
research. it means research methodology selected is not proper and effective. Also, reliability of
data is not valid due to ineffective research method. Here, it is evaluated that preliminary
outcomes of pilot study is not feasible. So, this data is not reliable as well.
Analysis
From above analysis it is identified that by doing pilot study the cronbach’s value is .457
which is unacceptable. Here, data set of patient history was taken of 579 samples. Moreover, to
do testing at large scale the methodology selected is not appropriate by researcher. Through this
method large scale data can not be gathered (Zadehmodarres, Salehpour, and Nazari, , 2017).
Furthermore, reliability of data in this data set is not accurate so even if large research is
conducted the data gathered in it will not be precise. Along with that it is evaluated that
hypothesis can not be developed on basis of this reliability of data. here, the scholar has selected
qualitative secondary research methodology. But as observed in outcomes of small data set this
method is not suitable for doing such study. This is because in this only qualitative data is
collected which includes on numeric data and info. However, topic is related to usage of
patients info system in hospitals. Therefore, the data has only given overview about its use in
different task and operations. But there is no facts and numeric included in it that to what extent
the information system is used by hospitals and how much it has benefited in it. besides data
gathered is related to patients who are suffering from liver problems and it is recorded in system.
8

So, on this basis it is difficult to proceed with further research and obtain relevant results which
can be useful in attaining of aims and objectives. Even if reliability value obtained comes
above .6 or .7 then it would be acceptable in this. But it is below .5 which is not accepted. It
clearly shows that methodology needs to be revised in it completely. The researcher has to
select new methods in order to conduct study (Bonaz, Sinniger, and Cracowski, 2016). Apart
from it, on basis of such low reliability data it is not possible to develop hypothesis. It will
highly impact on further research even if hypothesis is made. This is because it will be wrong
and not according to study.
For such topic data method selected needs to be appropriate as entire results are based on
what type of methodology is selected. As reliability of data shows that to what extent data
gathered is accurate and how it will benefit in generating of outcomes. The reliability of data
means to what extent data can be relayed and how it will benefit in future research. reliability is
entire process of ensuring that data gathered is suitable for research. It also makes things easy to
get it understand that why this method is selected in study and how it benefits in it. when
methodology is not appropriate then data collected is also not proper it is because data collected
depends on type of method selected. The reliability is calculated on basis of certain criteria that
are 0.9 or above then data is highly reliable, 0.7 - 0.8 it is reliable as well. Also, from 0.5- 0.7 it
is moderate but from 0.5 to low then it is unacceptable. This shows cronbach alpha value and
how it allows in evaluating reliability of data. it is essential to do it so that clear hypothesis is
formed and then data is gathered. Thus, for this cronbach alpha was calculated on to find out
whether data is reliable or not. Moreover, pilot study was essential to do so that further data is
collected from large number of participants. Usually, in doing of large research pilot study it
done that enables in showing whether study is feasible or not. Apart from it, study test whether
method selected for research is suitable or not and how much time is needed to conduct study
(Justice, Nambiar, and Kirkland, 2019).
CONCLUSION
Hereby, it is stated that patient information system is used in hospitals. The system store
and protect patient data and info in effective way. So, with use of this it becomes easy to
analyse patient history and records. Here, pilot study was done and small scale data was
collected so it enabled in analysing the reliability of data and methods used in study. Thus,
value found in it was .457 which means that data is not acceptable. There is need to make
9

changes in methodology so that further large scale study is conducted and precise data is
obtained. Moreover, hypothesis needs to be developed as well on basis of it. Here, reliability of
data is not accepted that means methodology needs to be modified by scholar before doing large
scale study.
10

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Bonaz, B., Sinniger, V. and Cracowski, J.L., 2016. Chronic vagus nerve stimulation in Crohn's
disease: a 6‐month follow‐up pilot study. Neurogastroenterology & Motility, 28(6),
pp.948-953.
Bousquet, J., Caimmi, D.P. and Chavannes, N.H., 2017. Pilot study of mobile phone technology
in allergic rhinitis in European countries: the MASK‐rhinitis study. Allergy, 72(6),
pp.857-865.
Chen, J., LIU, D. and QIAN, Z., 2020. A pilot study of hydroxychloroquine in treatment of
patients with common coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). Journal of Zhejiang
University (Medical Science), 49(1), pp.0-0.
In, J., 2017. Introduction of a pilot study. Korean journal of anesthesiology, 70(6), p.601.
Justice, J.N., Nambiar, A.M. and Kirkland, J.L., 2019. Senolytics in idiopathic pulmonary
fibrosis: results from a first-in-human, open-label, pilot study. EBioMedicine, 40, pp.554-
563.
Shah, N.B., Allegretti, A.S. and Fasano, A., 2019. Blood microbiome profile in CKD: a pilot
study. Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, 14(5), pp.692-701.
Villwock, J.A., Sobin, L.B. and Harris, T.M., 2016. Impostor syndrome and burnout among
American medical students: a pilot study. International journal of medical education, 7,
p.364.
Wu, Z., Wang, Z. and Jin, H., 2018. Towards privacy-preserving visual recognition via
adversarial training: A pilot study. In Proceedings of the European Conference on
Computer Vision (ECCV) (pp. 606-624).
Zadehmodarres, S., Salehpour, S. and Nazari, L., 2017. Treatment of thin endometrium with
autologous platelet-rich plasma: a pilot study. JBRA assisted reproduction, 21(1), p.54.
11