An Investigative Study on the Impact of the Online Appointment Scheduling System and the Pharm Partner System to Users Quality of Working Life

University of Technology, Jamaica implemented technologies in its health care facilities to better serve the staff and patients. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of these technologies on the quality of working life for users in a small healthcare environment and add to the body of knowledge for future research on this topic. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed. Two instruments were: interviews and survey forms. Sample size were Health Clinic staff (\pmbN=9), Pharmacy staff (\pmbN=8), University general staff, students and lectures (N=153). The investigation covered a one (1) year period. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software version 24.0 was and NVivo software were used for data entry and analysis of the surveys and interviews respectively. The overall experiences using the systems were as followed. Kruskal Wallis nonparametric test, Rank Mean table review, general users of the online appointment scheduling system \pmbP value = 0.230, Heath Clinic staff \pmbP value = 0.254 and Pharmacy staff \pmbP \pmbvalue = 0.365. SPSS frequency test for general users of the online appointment scheduling system overall experience, 41.50% Very Good, 27.89% Good, 17.69% Satisfactory, 9.52% Excellent and 3.40% Poor. Health Clinic staff, 66.67% Very Good, 11.11% Good, Excellent and Satisfactory, respectively. The Pharmacy staff, 37.50% Satisfactory, 25.00% Very Good and Good, respectively. The Findings supported that the systems improved users' quality of working life. Reduced waiting time for patients to access doctors and receive their prescription from both facilities. Pharmacists were able to disburse drugs to patients at a faster rate. Most manual functions at both facilities were automated: the retrieval of patient's appointment scheduled information at health clinic and the retrieval of patient's records at the pharmacy. Pharmacy inventory system was automated, patients at the health clinic were able to go online and see doctors available for appointments.