title: Sustainability of health information systems in developing countries: the case of Fiji.
abstract: This paper examines the future sustainability of the Fijian Ministry of Health's (MoH) information and communication technology (ITC) system for patient management (PATIS). PATIS was developed with AusAID funding and, as the owner of the system, AusAID has no commercial competence or interest in further development of the system. Thus, the question that arises is: should Fiji adopt a commercially available patient administration system or retain the existing PATIS? In-depth consultations with senior executives and line managers of units that were major users of PATIS were undertaken. Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussion approaches were utilised. The consensus or majority views of the users were that the existing PATIS performed more than adequately. The future sustainability of the system is threatened by the lack of investment in resources (e.g. hardware maintenance and human resources) required to keep the system operating at its optimum. It was found that PATIS provides Fiji with a satisfactory patient administration system. The identified problems with the system are not related to the application per se but rather to an under-investment in resources for its utilisation.
authors.affiliation: Collaboration for Ageing & Aged Care Informatics, School of Information Systems, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba QLD, Australia. soar@usq.edu.au
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Soar
authors.forename: Jeff
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gow
authors.forename: Vili
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Caniogo
mesh_terms: D000288:Administrative Personnel; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001315:Australia; D003906:Developing Countries / Q000191:economics; D005367:Fiji; D005378:Financial Support; D005380:Financing, Government; D017144:Focus Groups; D063005:Health Information Systems / Q000191:economics / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006284:Health Plan Implementation / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods* / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D018947:Samoa; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013685:Telecommunications / Q000191:economics / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000458:organization & administration