title: e-Health preparedness assessment in the context of an influenza pandemic: a qualitative study in China.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the preparedness status of a hospital in Beijing, China for implementation of an e-Health system in the context of a pandemic response.
  
  
  METHODS
  This research project used qualitative methods and involved two phases: (1) group interviews were conducted with key stakeholders to examine how the surveillance system worked with information and communication technology (ICT) support in Beijing, the results of which provided background information for a case study at the second phase and (2) individual interviews were conducted in order to gather a rich data set in relation to e-Health preparedness at the selected hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  In phase 1, group interviews were conducted at Centres for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) in Beijing. In phase 2, individual interviews were performed at a secondary hospital selected for the case study.
  
  
  METHODS
  In phase 1, three group interviews were undertaken with 12 key stakeholders (public health/medical practitioners from the Beijing city CDC, two district CDCs and a tertiary hospital) who were involved in the 2009 influenza A (H1N1) pandemic response in Beijing. In phase 2, individual interviews were conducted with 23 participants (including physicians across medical departments, an IT manager and a general administrative officer). PRIMARY AND SECONDARY MEASURES: For the case study, five areas were examined to assess the hospital's preparedness for implementation of an e-Health system in the context of a pandemic response: (1) motivational forces for change; (2) healthcare providers' exposure to e-Health; (3) technological preparedness; (4) organisational non-technical ability to support a clinical ICT innovation and (5) sociocultural issues at the organisation in association with e-Health implementation and a pandemic response.
  
  
  RESULTS
  This article reports a small subset of the case study results from which major issues were identified under three main themes in relation to the hospital's preparedness. These issues include a poor sharing of patient health records, prescription errors, unavailability of software tools to assist physicians in answering patient questions, physicians' concerns about the reliability of ICT and the high monetary cost of e-health implementation and uncertainty over return on investment, and their dissatisfaction with the software in use.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Prior to the implementation of e-Health, planning must be undertaken to ensure the smooth introduction of the system. The assessment of organisational preparedness is an important step in this planning process. On the basis of a case study, deficient areas of organisational preparedness were identified for the prospective implementation of electronic health records. Accordingly, we suggested possible solutions for the areas in need of improvement to facilitate e-Health implementation's success.
authors.affiliation: Asia-Pacific ubiquitous Healthcare research Centre (APuHC), Australian School of Business, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
authors.forename: Junhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Holly
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Seale
authors.forename: Pradeep
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ray
authors.forename: Quanyi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Shuang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: C Raina
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Macintyre