Information Technology and Patient Health: Analyzing Outcomes, Populations, and Mechanisms

Seth Freedman, Haizhen Lin () and Jeffrey Prince

No 21389, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We study the effect of hospital adoption of electronic medical records (EMRs) on health outcomes, particularly patient safety indicators (PSIs). We find evidence of a positive impact of EMRs on PSIs via decision support rather than care coordination. Consistent with this mechanism, we find an EMR with decision support is more effective at reducing PSIs for less complicated cases, using several different metrics for complication. These findings indicate the negligible impacts for EMRs found by previous studies focusing on the Medicare population and/or mortality do not apply in all settings.

JEL-codes: I10 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-ict
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Published as Seth Freedman & Haizhen Lin & Jeffrey Prince, 2018. "Information Technology and Patient Health: Analyzing Outcomes, Populations, and Mechanisms," American Journal of Health Economics, vol 4(1), pages 51-79.

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Journal Article: Information Technology and Patient Health: Analyzing Outcomes, Populations, and Mechanisms (2018)
Journal Article: Information Technology and Patient Health: Analyzing Outcomes, Populations, and Mechanisms (2018)
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