Healthcare IT Sophistication Improves Nursing Home Care

Researchers at the University of Missouri (MU; Columbia, USA) assessed annual U.S. national trends in technology adoption over a three-year period, using an IT Sophistication Survey, which provided scores based on IT capabilities, extent of use, and integration, and how they are used in resident care, clinical support, and administrative activities. The target goal of the survey was a 10% representative from each state in the United States, for a total of 1,570 random sample of nursing homes recruited from Nursing Home Compare.

A total of 815 surveys were completed – which was below the goal – but the facilities in the participating sample had similar demographic characteristics (ownership, total population in a location, and bed size) to the remaining homes not participating. The results showed greater IT capabilities in resident care and administrative activities, but less in clinical support, with IT capabilities at their highest when integrated when internal and external stakeholders. Overall, IT capabilities appeared to be greater than IT extent of use. The study was published in the September 2016 issue of the Journal of Nursing Care Quality.

“The scores indicated that technology is becoming a greater part of resident care in areas where physicians and nurses work, not just in areas of administration and billing. We found that as IT sophistication increases in resident care, there appears to be a positive impact on quality measures,” said lead author Gregory Alexander, PhD, RN. “This finding means that if nursing home staffs have access to the right technological tools and are using them to facilitate resident care, quality of care can and should improve.”

The 2009 American Reinvestment & Recovery Act (ARRA) includes measures designed to modernize infrastructure, one of which is the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. Nearly USD 20 billion were set aside in incentives for hospitals and physicians who adopt qualified, certified electronic medical record (EMR) platforms with the ability to exchange information with other sources. However, nursing homes did not receive the same level of investment in technology as hospitals, leading to little understanding of how IT sophistication is impacting patient care in nursing homes.

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