E-healthcare maturity in Taiwan.

The purpose of this study was to explore the status of e-healthcare maturity in Taiwan following a nationwide investigation sponsored by the Department of Health. Based on Nolan's stage model and related studies, we propose a multidimensional model to gain a better understanding of the current status of e-healthcare maturity in hospitals. The target subjects included every hospital in Taiwan. A total of 538 hospitals were successfully interviewed, showing a high response rate of 94.4%. The results indicate that the overall e-healthcare maturity of Taiwanese hospitals is fairly high. Such a high degree of maturity is critical for formulating e-healthcare policy to stimulate the exchange of electronic medical record. This article provides a brief comparison of the situation in other countries and posits that Taiwan holds a position of relative maturity in the world of e-healthcare development.