Achieving knowledge management integration through EAI: a case study from healthcare sector

Healthcare Information Systems (IS) non-integrated nature is associated with inefficient data and knowledge exchange and reduction in healthcare care services' quality. Therefore, numerous medical errors occur that impact healthcare services. Healthcare organisations have used Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) to integrate IS. Literature indicates that EAI achieves integration at four layers namely: connectivity, transportation, transformation and process integration. We suggest that among others, EAI achieves Knowledge integration and propose a Revised Model for Integration Layers (REAL), tested through a case study. The results indicate that cases leading to medical errors and wrong prescription can be prevented by integrating knowledge through EAI.

Keywords: knowledge management, EAI, enterprise application integration, healthcare organisations, information systems, information integration, knowledge integration