The Impact of Meaningful Use and Electronic Health Records on Hospital Patient Safety

Kate E. Trout (), Li-Wu Chen, Fernando A. Wilson, Hyo Jung Tak and David Palm
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Kate E. Trout: Department of Health Sciences, School of Health Professions, University of Missouri, 329 Clark Hall, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
Li-Wu Chen: Department of Health Sciences, School of Health Professions, University of Missouri, 329 Clark Hall, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
Fernando A. Wilson: Matheson Center for Health Care Studies, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, USA
Hyo Jung Tak: Department of Health Services Research and Administration, College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198, USA
David Palm: Department of Health Services Research and Administration, College of Public Health, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 19, 1-10

Abstract: The HITECH Act aimed to leverage Electronic Health Records (EHRs) to improve efficiency, quality, and patient safety. Patient safety and EHR use have been understudied, making it difficult to determine if EHRs improve patient safety. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of EHRs and attesting to Meaningful Use (MU) on Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs). A multivariate regression analysis was performed using a generalized linear model method to examine the impact of EHR use on PSIs. Fully implemented EHRs not attesting to MU had a positive impact on three PSIs, and hospitals that attested to MU had a positive impact on two. Attesting to MU or having a fully implemented EHR were not drivers of PSI-90 composite score, suggesting that hospitals may not see significant differences in patient safety with the use of EHR systems as hospitals move towards pay-for-performance models. Policy and practice may want to focus on defining metrics and PSIs that are highly preventable to avoid penalizing hospitals through reimbursement, and work toward adopting advanced analytics to better leverage EHR data. These findings will assist hospital leaders to find strategies to better leverage EHRs, rather than relying on achieving benchmarks of MU objectives.

Keywords: patient safety indicators; reimbursement incentive; patient safety; health services; electronic health records (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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