IT depends on INPUT!

I think what you are saying is very true. I remember reading about an new case recording system that doctors were supposed to put in coding information about the patient they had seen in addition to writing in the usual notes. All the benefits of recording the information when to hospital admin and the doctors themselves didn't have any access to the data. The result (rather predictably) was that there was a lot of opposition to the systems and they ended up not being used.
 
If inputting information takes extra time and effort, we can't expect front-line staff to be enthusiastic about doing the extra work, especially if they don't get any feedback or see the results of the data they put in.
 
In an ideal world, electronic systems would integrate with staff work-flow so seemlessly that it wouldn't take any more time over pen and paper. However, if the information generated from inputting the data is useful for the staff doing the inputting, they are probably more willing to put in the extra effort.

I believe healthcare is a complex adaptive system and as such we can't control or manage data input, or at least we shouldn't. How about taking an approach where patients enter their own data in a format that meets their and your needs? Let's get rid of the idea of making triage nurses in A & E services enter data about symptoms and let the patients do it themselves while they wait to see their doctor. Those who are too sick to enter their own data can let their doctor do it (that should reduce the amount of data entry considerably, shouldn't it? or am I being unrealistic?)

Possibly a little give the average literacy levels of the people I see every day!   When there is a way to transfer data from the person to the computer without needing literacy, that will be a wonderful day!

IT depends on INPUT, I agree with you.  Giving the input involves humans.  How to promote them to give INPUT?  Studies have to be done to investigate factors that can influence the success of IT implementation in health.  IT can only be useful if people are willing to engage in the whole process  from giving input to analysing information, etc.  Many organizations fail because of reluctance of employees to use IT. What strategies or guidelines should be adopted to get people involved in using IT?  Something to be considered.   

 We faced exactly this issue in primary care when we wanted to measure population health goals.  All previous attempts to extract and report on data simply told us that the data was of poor quality.  We have been successful only where we deliver systems that tightly integrate the process of recording data with delivering value back to the user.  People WILL enter data themselves if they receive some value from doing so.  The challenge for health informatitions is to ensure that we focus first on how we deliver value to the user, with the data analysis that comes out of it being a secondary biproduct.  So often we design systems to collect data without any consideration for how we deliver value back to the person recording it.
In Northland, we have had great success getting GPs and nurses to systematically and consistently record good population health data, by making sure that they have the tools to use this population health data to provide better care for their patients.  They are then motivated to record it as they find it clinically useful in their everyday interaction with the patient.
Until such time as we provide clinicians with systems that support their everyday interaction with the patient as an integrated and essential part of the way they work, we will always suffer from inadequate data.

You are a man after my own heart Ken!  It's design with the user at both ends being thought of - if we only think of the data entry, analysis gets dropped off, if we only think of data analysis, we'll be lucky if the data gets in there!
It is a bit about economics though, if I enter patient data such as questionnaires, it costs more than if someone who is clerical enters it: although I'm the one needing the info!  So if the clerical people don't feel it's important, and the manager doesn't realise how useful the data can be, data entry can become something to 'get around to' rather than something that is vital.
Speaking as a clinician, I'd love to see some graphs or some reports on the characteristics of the patients I see - perhaps referral trends, or how many followup appts people are having, perhaps something about age and gender, - information that might add value to future planning so the service is not just reacting but is considering future needs.  What confuses me is that I'm not a manager, yet I think this information is critical - would that managers could see it this way too!