Electronic health records giving marginal benefit to quality of patient care

Electronic health records not improving quality of care much

Electronic health records are not significantly improving the quality of health care in the United States according to a study by the RAND Corp. Improved record-keeping through the use of technology has always been touted as effective for health care organizations. But the new study, published online in the American Journal of Managed Care on December 23, suggests that experts need to come up with better methods to gauge the effectiveness of electronic health records. The study focused on three conditions: heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia in 2,021 hospitals from 2003 to 2007. Researchers were able to detect improvement in the quality of care for patients admitted in hospitals with basic electronic records systems. However, those who were cared for in facilities using advanced electronic medical records did not improve much. Those who suffered a heart attack or pneumonia did not have significantly better outcomes in hospitals with electronic records. The study says that measuring the effect of technology on the quality of care may need to be changed.

"The lurking question has been whether we are examining the right measures to truly test the effectiveness of health information technology," study author Spencer S. Jones said in a statement. "Our existing tools are probably not the ones we need going forward to adequately track the nation's investment in health information technology." The researchers said that these new measures should be formulated soon as more technology gets applied to health care and the U.S. government is preparing to invest more in electronic health records and other IT applications in the field.

Posted by George Daniels on Monday December 27 2010, 2:57 AM EST. Ref: Health Day. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Health. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0