High Tech Hospitals May Have A Survival Edge

Results of a new survey of the 100 Most Wired hospitals and health systems suggest they have lower mortality rates. A wide variety of information technology options available in a hospital could be the difference between life and death for a patient. The Hospitals and Health Systems annual survey of technology in health care suggests a mortality rate 7.2 percent lower for high-tech hospitals exists. The suggestion stands up to the 99 percent confidence level, and even remains when adjustments for a hospital's size and its status as a teaching center are controlled in the data. However, the survey states very clearly that it does not establish a casual relationship between a hospital's IT integration and procedural outcomes. The hospitals considered being the Most Wired in the survey address quality issues with a variety of tech tools. With a broader high-tech presence, physicians are more apt to enter their orders directly into a system themselves instead of delegating the task. Clinical interactions, which take the form of medications and dosages prescribed for a patient, have been a long time area of concern for health care providers. Those on the Most Wired list demonstrated a higher percentage of those transactions being conducted electronically. here