Hospital spending on IT as a percentage of overall capital spending increased over the past few years, regardless of hospitals' revenue base and geography, according to findings released yesterday by Fitch Ratings. The majority of hospitals reported IT spending at about 25% of total capital investment. The spending has focused on electronic medical records, computerized physician order entry, and picture archiving and communication systems. The findings are in a new report, Quality and Patient Safety Spending in the Not-for-Profit Hospital Sector. The report says that although the quest for improved quality and safety motivate this spending, the link between quality of care and reimbursement does not. Hospitals reported that ROI for IT investments is difficult to determine and “almost never” entered into the decision making process for IT spending. For more information on the report, contact Fitch at (212) 908-0684.
