Smart hospitals aim to advance digitalization to provide better and safer care and increase user satisfaction by minimizing documentation burden. The aim of this study is to investigate the potential impact and its logic of user participation and self-efficacy on the pre-usage attitude and behavioural intention towards IT for smart barcode scanner-based workflows. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in a system of 10 hospitals in Germany that are in the process of implementing intelligent workflow technology. Based on the answers of 310 clinicians, a partial least squares (PLS) model was developed which explained 71.3% of the variance in pre-usage attitude and 49.4% of the variance in behavioural intention. User participation significantly determined pre-usage attitude through perceived usefulness and trust, while self-efficacy significantly did so through effort expectancy. This pre-usage model sheds light on how users' behavioural intention towards using smart workflow technology could be shaped. It will be complemented by a post-usage model according to the two-stage model of Information System Continuance.
Keywords: Smart hospital; documentation burden; intelligent workflow; self-efficacy; user participation.