EHR Adoption and Healthcare Quality in the US

• In Event: Medical Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 4. The Institution of Medicine

Abstract

Over the past two decades, US hospitals have rapidly adopted Electronic Health Records (EHRs). The promise of EHR adoption was an increase in efficiency, reduction in costs, and improvement of healthcare quality and outcomes. However, after years of implementation, there is still uncertainty around if EHR adoption has achieved its stated aims. In this project, I explore how EHR adoption, defined in several ways, has impacted various healthcare quality outcomes at the national and state level from 2008 to 2019. I explore how various hospital-level (e.g., teaching v. non-teaching) and state-level (e.g., population composition) characteristics may interact with EHR adoption to influence healthcare quality outcomes such as adverse drug events, malpractice cases, and patient satisfaction. Preliminary results suggest that the extent of EHR adoption and the specific functionalities adopted may play a significant role in this relationship, beyond a general measure of basic adoption. Furthermore, some functionalities are more impactful for specific healthcare quality outcomes. Finally, there appears to be substantive differences at the state-level, making the impact of EHR adoption vary based on the hospital landscape at the state-level.

Author

• Fatima Glovena Fairfax, Duke University