Nearly three-quarters of hospital executives (71%) say that healthcare IT initiatives have been an important factor in enhancing quality, particularly in delivering more timely clinical information, diagnosis, and treatment, according to a survey by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. The survey assessed use of six types of health IT: electronic lab results, electronic clinical notes systems, electronic images available hospital-wide, electronic lab orders, electronic reminders for guideline-based interventions, and e-prescribing.
Electronic lab results were the most commonly used type of IT (88% of hospitals), while CPOE was least common (21%). Among hospitals that had implemented fewer IT initiatives, 22% said better patient safety through the reduction of medical errors was the most important benefit of IT. Ten percent of executives cited improved communications among staff as the primarily benefit. Larger hospitals were more likely to be using healthcare IT by a wide margin, prompting concern that smaller hospitals were missing out on associated quality improvements. Reduction in the amount of labor required to report quality measures to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for Hospital Compare was another advantage of healthcare IT, cited by 69% of executives.
