Patient care and costs improved with HIT
A new report from IT solutions firm CDW Healthcare finds that 84 percent of doctors and nurses feel patient care is improved by using healthcare information technologies. The company says HIT can also lower care costs.
CDW Healthcare’s “Healthcare IT Tipping Point Report Survey,” conducted from Jan. 9 to Jan. 23, is based on responses from 202 doctors and nurses and 200 healthcare IT professionals from hospitals with more than 200 beds.
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The survey found that respondents believe healthcare IT solutions are getting better. Caregivers rate systems installed during the last 18 months as more useful in patient care (43 percent) and more able to deliver the information that they need (34 percent).
Doctors and nurses cite the availability of better information (85 percent), the accuracy of care delivered to patients (72 percent) and the ability to track follow-up care (68 percent) as the top benefits. Nearly 40 percent of respondents also see healthcare IT as enabling them to spend more time with patients.
In addition to improved patient care, HIT can also reduce costs, according to CDW.
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Bob Rossi, vice president of CDW Healthcare, says HIT has the potential to lower the cost of care “to an extraordinary degree." "Consider just two statistics," he said, "Seventy-two percent of caregivers respond that IT improves the accuracy of care delivery and 57 percent of caregivers respond that IT improves the speed of care delivery to patients.”
“A large number of new systems have come online during the last 18 months and there is certainly the potential for an enormous return (on investment),” continued Rossi. “The actual return will vary. Hospitals that balanced new systems with new infrastructure will see better returns. Hospitals out of balance will react to infrastructure needs and likely overspend on fixing avoidable problems.”
A full copy of CDW Healthcare’s Healthcare IT Tipping Point Report is available here.
Follow HFN Editor Rene Letourneau on Twitter @ReneLetourneau.
