The use of health IT systems was associated with fewer adverse patient safety events in hospitals, according to a cross-sectional study published in the American Journal of Managed Care.
"Our findings suggest that surgical IT systems play a positive, albeit clinically modest, role in patient safety for patients who undergo in-hospital surgery," according to study authors.
Researchers studied data on patient safety performance for more than 3,000 U.S. hospitals from October 2008 to June 2010 and combined their findings with IT systems data from 2007. Patient safety performance was based on eight indicators from the Agency for Health Research and Quality.
The eight indicators used in the researchers' analysis included:
- Death among surgical patients with serious, treatable complications
- Collapsed lung that results from medical treatment
- Breathing failure after surgery
- Blood clots in the lung or a large vein after surgery
- Wounds that split open after surgery
- Accidental cuts and tears
- Death after a surgery to repair a weakness in the abdominal
- Death among patients with hip fractures
When data from the three sources was combined, researchers found using surgical IT systems was associated with 7 percent to 26 percent lower rates for seven out of eight patient safety indicators.
Additionally, stage 1 meaningful use-capable EHR systems were associated with 7 percent to 11 percent lower rates on three of eight measures.