The Benefits Of Health Information Technology: A Review Of The Recent Literature Shows Predominantly Positive Results

Abstract

An unprecedented federal effort is under way to boost the adoption of electronic health records and spur innovation in health care delivery. We reviewed the recent literature on health information technology to determine its effect on outcomes, including quality, efficiency, and provider satisfaction. We found that 92 percent of the recent articles on health information technology reached conclusions that were positive overall. We also found that the benefits of the technology are beginning to emerge in smaller practices and organizations, as well as in large organizations that were early adopters. However, dissatisfaction with electronic health records among some providers remains a problem and a barrier to achieving the potential of health information technology. These realities highlight the need for studies that document the challenging aspects of implementing health information technology more specifically and how these challenges might be addressed.

Reducing PSA-Based Prostate Cancer Screening in Men Aged 75 Years and Older with the Use of Highly Specific Computerized Clinical Decision Support

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Investigating the effects of ICT on innovation and performance of European hospitals: an exploratory study

“…Existing empirical literature on the influence of ICT on hospital performance is more extensive than that for the effect of ICT on hospital innovation, but it refers almost exclusively to USA hospitals and the situation in the USA health sector (see, e.g., Buntin et al 2011 for survey of this literature). 5 The group of the USA studies, on which we focus here, examined the impact of ICT use in hospitals on the quality of health care (Agha 2012;McCullough et al 2010), certain patient outcomes , hospital productivity (Lee et al 2012), hospital cost efficiency (PwCW2007), hospital operating costs (Borzekowski 2009) and the efficiency of the utilization of clinicians (Atkinson et al 2006).…”

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“…1 HIT could also serve as a foundation to enable improvements in clinical care and support initiatives such as the patient-centered medical home. 2 Yet, adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) in ambulatory care has been relatively limited.…”