Ismaeel M I Almakrami
The absence of active end-user participation in project development and implementation is considered as a major factor in project failure. This is of importance in
Saudi health care where there has been a large investment in Health Information Technology (HIT). One such technology is Picture Archiving and Communication
Systems (PACS) which should be understood as a network of devices and software working together simultaneously. PACS captures images, stores them, shares
them, and makes them available for retrieval in different locations. The major users of PACS are radiologists whose role in health care is to interpret the images
and assist physicians making diagnosis and decisions.
This paper reports a study in which radiologists in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, were first asked to define quality criteria of PACS, using five focus groups. These criteria,
together with criteria identified in the literature, were then used as the basis for a survey by questionnaire of 240 radiologists from 15 hospitals representing the
five major sectors of health care in Saudi Arabia.
In the survey, radiologists divided the criteria into “basic”, “performance”, and “delight”, following the Kano model of end-user expectations. Quality can refer to
system quality, information quality, and service quality, according to the Delone & McLean model, and in this survey radiologists attached particular importance
to quality criteria relating to service quality, rather than system quality and information quality. It also showed that radiologists were not satisfied with the extent of
their participation in the selection and implementation of PACS. Whilst satisfied that system criteria were met, they were less satisfied that service quality criteria
had been met. They also judged that their productivity and job satisfaction were higher where their participation had been higher.
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