Human Resource Information Systems in Healthcare: A Systematic Review (Protocol)

Background: Compared with the eHealth literature as a whole, there has been relatively little published research on the use and impacts of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) designed to support business functions within health organizations. Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) have the potential to improve organizational efficiency and effectiveness through facilitating workforce planning, financial and operational administration, staff training, and management analytics. However the evidence-base on HRIS in healthcare is widely distributed across disciplinary boundaries and previous reviews have been somewhat limited in scope. This rigorous systematic review will identify, appraise and synthesize existing international research on the implementation and impacts of HRIS in health organizations, in order to provide insights and recommendations that may guide future purchasers, commissioners, implementers, evaluators and users of such systems. Objective: 1. To determine the prevalence and scope of existing research and evaluation pertaining to HRIS in health organisations. 2. To analyse, classify and synthesise existing evidence on the processes and impacts of HRIS development, implementation and adoption. 3. To generate recommendations for HRIS research, practice and policy, with reference to the needs of different stakeholders and communities of practice. Methods: A high level scoping review was first undertaken to inform a draft search strategy, which was refined through several cycles of piloting and iteration in order to optimize its sensitivity and specificity. This is currently being used by the first author, with the help of a medical librarian, to interrogate international electronic databases indexing Medical, Business, ICT and Multi-disciplinary research. Sources of grey literature and reference lists of included studies will also be searched. There will be no restrictions on language or publication year. Two reviewers will screen and code titles and abstracts for potentially eligible studies, for which full text articles will be retrieved. Reasons for exclusion will be noted for the remaining articles. A structured form will be used to summarise and classify the articles. Any disagreements between the reviewers will be resolved through consensus or arbitration by a third reviewer. A PRISMA flow diagram will illustrate the study selection process and ensure transparency of the review. Finally, content experts will be consulted to ensure that important articles have not been missed. Results: A comprehensive search strategy has been piloted and the initial database searches are underway. The review is expected to be complete and published by the end of 2015. Conclusions: By synthesising the existing evidence-base, identifying areas where knowledge is currently lacking and generating recommendations for research and practice, the review will provide a useful resource for decision makers and managers considering or already implementing HRIS, as well as encouraging new research in this area. Trial Registration: PROSPERO International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews: CRD42015023581; http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.asp?ID=CRD42015023581#.VYu1BPlVjDU