Exploring user acceptance of an e-hospital service: An empirical study in Taiwan Mong-Yuan Chang a,b,c,1 , Chuan Pang d,2 , J. Michael Tarn e,3 , Tai-Shun Liu f , David C. Yen g, ⁎ a Graduate Institute of Library & Information Studies, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan b Ming Chuan University, Taiwan c Department of Information Management, Financial Supervisory Commission, Executive Yuan, Taiwan d School of Business, Macao University of Science and Technology, Macao, PR China e Department of Business Information Systems, Haworth College of Business, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5412, USA f Information Office, Veterans' General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC g School of Economics and Business, SUNY College at Oneonta, 226 Netzer Administration Bldg., Oneonta, NY 13820, USA abstract article info Article history: Received 20 December 2013 Accepted 14 August 2014 Available online 26 August 2014 Keywords: Web-based appointment system e-Hospital Technology acceptance model Healthcare Service quality The web-based appointment system (WAS) is considered one of the major Internet services provided by e-hospitals. Because of the very high adoption rate of WAS in the public medical centers in Taiwan, this research investigates the current status of its implementation and examines the factors affecting the user acceptance of WAS by integrating the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with the constructs of service quality. Further, this study proposes a research framework that delineates the user acceptance of WAS, which is verified via an em- pirical survey. This article is concluded with the managerial implications and suggestions. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The success and prevalence of the Internet has made web-based systems become an important medium in connecting service/product providers with their customers. It also created a new arena for firms in various industries. The healthcare industry is not exempt from this new arena; hospitals are eager to develop and implement web-based information systems. Therefore, every health-care institution's current, top priority is to reduce the workload of staff and improve efficiency and service quality though the utilization of information technology and the Internet [7]. In order to gain a competitive edge, hospitals are developing and implementing web-based e-hospital systems that will enhance clinical service quality, promote patient loyalty, reduce operation cost, and increase the efficiency of hospital management [18]. E-hospital systems provide various e-hospital services, such as remote monitoring of patients, clinical information collection and processing and web-based appointment systems. The web-based appointment system (WAS) is considered the as paramount of all of these new Internet services provided by e-hospitals. WAS not only provides a convenient channel for patients to remotely make clinical appointments on the Internet, but also offers rich data warehousing for doctors to retrieve a patient's medical records, which are useful and beneficial for tracing a patience's recovery or making cross-department consultations. In comparison to other e-hospital implementations, WAS is widely employed by medical centers. The e-hospital systems such as WAS are evolving toward user-centricity, where the patients are able to control the granularity of healthcare infor- mation disclosed to the third party, by specifying the content of the health information and to which healthcare provider can the informa- tion can be disclosed, and the purpose of processing the information, etc. [15]. Therefore, it is a crucial issue for hospitals to explore the accep- tance of WAS from the patient's viewpoints. However, prior studies which discuss the user acceptance of WAS are very limited. Since WAS is the pioneer of the e-hospital business, the health-care industry and the academic world pay high attention to the acceptance of WAS. Therefore, one of the research objectives of this study is to reveal the current status of WAS implementation in Taiwan. To facilitate the exploration of the acceptance of new information technologies or systems, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), which helps to explain the intentions and behavior of users, will be implemented in the research of this study. The exclusive use of the TAM in this study is Computer Standards & Interfaces 38 (2015) 35–43 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 607 436 3458; fax: +1 607 436 2543. E-mail addresses: gaeamy@gmail.com (M.-Y. Chang), cpang@must.edu.mo (C. Pang), mike.tarn@wmich.edu (J. Michael Tarn), tsliu@vghtpe.gov.tw (T.-S. Liu), David.Yen@oneonta.edu (D.C. Yen). 1 Tel.: +886 2 8968 0180. 2 Tel.: +853 8897 2057. 3 Tel.: +1 269 387 5409. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.csi.2014.08.004 0920-5489/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Computer Standards & Interfaces journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/csi