Barriers and Enablers to the Implementation of Intelligent Guidance Systems for Patients in Chinese Tertiary Transfer Hospitals: Usability Evaluation
研究评估了中国三级转诊医院中患者智能导诊系统的可用性问题，通过启发式评估和系统可用性量表发现78个问题，并分析了影响用户满意度的因素。
Since the early 2000s, information systems have been widely employed across hospitals in China, changing the way in which the processes are managed, improving customer satisfaction and strengthening business competence. Intelligent guidance systems for patients (IGSP), which resemble humanoid characteristics using artificial intelligence, assist patients in wayfinding, obtaining medical guidance, consultations, and other medical services, and can improve user experiences before, during, and after hospital visits. However, despite their widespread adoption, usability studies on such systems are scarce. To date, there is no practical or standardized measurement for system usability, leading to difficult inspection, maintenance, and servicing processes. In this article, we aim to determine the usability deficiency of IGSP and understand how various factors influence user satisfaction during their use. We employ the requirements set out in the ISO9241-11:2018 standard using two inspection methods with three experts and 346 valid end-users. First, a heuristic evaluation method is employed to detect usability problems and to demonstrate the violations of Nielsen's ten heuristic principles. Second, a system usability scale is applied to evaluate participants’ satisfaction toward IGSP. Finally, the analysis of variance tests and multiple linear regression analyses is performed to establish the correlations between the user satisfaction and characteristics. The results show that a total of 78 problems violated the heuristic principles 169 times. These are divided into five categories: voice interaction, in-hospital navigation, medical consultation, interactive interface design, and miscellaneous. This article contributes to the existing literature on new technologies in healthcare organizations, demonstrating that IGSP can improve customer satisfaction during hospital visits.