AHRQ Health IT Update: Model of HIT and Inpatient Safety

AHRQ Health IT Update: Model of HIT and Inpatient Safety

AHRQ Health IT Update: Model of HIT and Inpatient Safety

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) sent this bulletin at 09/11/2013 07:45 AM EDT

Model Explores Health IT Factors and Inpatient Safety

New research supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality examines the link between health information technology and patient safety. “Health Information Technology and Hospital Patient Safety: A Conceptual Model to Guide Research” appears in the September issue of the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. A conceptual model was developed that examined health IT functions, contextual factors and patient safety errors. Data was used from the 2009 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) State Inpatient Databases and the results of the American Hospital Association’s Annual Survey Information Technology Supplement.

The new conceptual model was created to evaluate use of health IT and Patient Safety Indicators. The paper describes the theoretical context for applying the model as the impact of health IT use and the Patient Safety Indicator “Postoperative Physiologic and Metabolic Derangement Rate.” The conceptual model was difficult to use, since the available data were designed to measure less precise assessments of health IT utilization. The researchers were unable to determine an association between health IT and postoperative metabolic derangement. The opportunities and importance of developing well-specified models and new measures to inform the quality improvement enterprise are highlighted. The conceptual model serves as a starting point for the creation of more informative tools to measure health IT use and inpatient quality and safety. 

Select to access the abstract: http://psnet.ahrq.gov/resource.aspx?resourceID=26690.