Hospitals that use advanced EHRs have lower cost-per-patient admission than comparable hospitals with similar case mix, according to a recent study.
Hospitals’ health IT systems were considered advanced if they met Meaningful Use requirements; they made up 18.9 percent of the sample. The study, published in the American Journal of Managed Care , included 2009 data from the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) and the Health Information and Management Systems Society.
For the study, researchers from the Medical University of South Carolina used 2009 discharge data from more than 5 million patients from 550 hospitals. Patients treated in hospitals with advanced EHRs cost, on average, $731 or 9.66 percent less than patients admitted to hospitals without advanced EHRs.
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The study noted that advanced EHR use requires a costly investment for hospitals that can be regained through savings in patient care. “Hospitals must anticipate that the financial savings may not exist until advanced, ‘Meaningful’ Use is attained,” according to the authors. “The majority of hospitals have yet to reach the stage of implementation where cost savings are possible, since they are not using advanced EHRs .”
