Results for hospitals with comprehensive electronic health record systems - defined as having 24 functions available in all clinical units - were compared with those of institutions with basic systems - 10 functions in at least on major unit - and those with none. While a few functions were associated with modest improvements in areas like length of stay and surgical infection prevention, the differences were small and none were broadly associated with significant levels of improvement.

"Our findings suggest that hospitals need to pay special attention to how they implement these systems. Simply having the technology available is probably not going to be enough," says DesRoches, an assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "Hospitals will need to effectively integrate new systems into their current practices. Studying institutions that have been successful will provide important lessons for everyone."

"This study has important implications for the government's efforts to define 'meaningful use,' the federal standard for receiving financial incentives," say Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH, of the Harvard School of Public Health, senior author of the study. "Ensuring that hospitals use these systems in a robust way will be critical to obtaining value from the large investment that the nation is making in health information technology," he adds.

Source: Massachusetts General Hospital