An Examination of Information Technology and its Perceived Quality Issues in Single System Hospitals in the United States

Abstract

The safety and quality of healthcare is of great concern in the United States. The positive effects of information technology reported in past research, especially case studies, has encouraged expectations that information technology may increase the quality of healthcare while reducing costs of healthcare. The goals of this study was to examine the relationship between levels of information technology, chief nursing officers perceptions of the quality of information for clinical decision making, and hospital performance with three measures: 1) the perceived quality of healthcare, 2) healthcare quality metrics, and 3) cost of healthcare in hospitals. The study utilized primary data (questionnaire) and secondary data obtained from the HIMSSAnalytics database and the American Hospital Directory. This study involved three phases: 1) questionnaire development, 2) implementation of the questionnaire and 3) merging the primary data (questionnaires) with secondary data from the American Hospital Directory and the HIMSSAnalytics database. Data were collected from a key informant, Chief Nursing Officer, of single system independent hospitals in the United States. One thousand surveys were mailed via the United States Postal Service. This mailing was followed by two e-mails. The overall response rate was 21.4%. The findings from the study give some support for the value of information technology (IT) in hospitals. Directly or indirectly IT was related to many of the factors in the study, but not all. The significance of quality of information in increasing the quality of healthcare and decreasing the cost of healthcare was determined.