Post-Acceptance of Electronic Medical Records: Evidence from a longitudinal Field Study

Many studies investigating post-acceptance of electronic medical records (EMR) assume that healthcare professionals exclusively base their continuance behavior on reasoned actions. While rational considerations certainly affect the intention to use an EMR, it does not fully explain the definitive user continuance behavior. Evidence exists that also subliminal effects such as habits and emotions play an important role. Consequently, we propose to investigate post-acceptance of EMR applying three different, but complementary views: (i) continuance behavior as result of reasoned actions, (ii) continuance behavior as result of emotional responses, and (iii) continuance behavior as result of habitual responses. The results from a longitudinal field study showed that automatic behavior, enabled by sufficient facilitating conditions and a good task-technology-fit, as well as positive emotions considerably affected healthcare professionals EMR continuance behavior. It also showed that a user's computer literacy level didn't play a significant role regarding the post-acceptance behavior.