Higher Electronic Health Record Functionality Is Associated with Lower Operating Costs in Urban-but Not Rural-Hospitals.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

 The aim of the study is to examine the relationship between electronic health record (EHR) use/functionality and hospital operating costs (divided into five subcategories), and to compare the results across rural and urban facilities.

Methods

 We match hospital-level data on EHR use/functionality with operating costs and facility characteristics to perform linear regressions with hospital- and time-fixed effects on a panel of 1,596 U.S. hospitals observed annually from 2016 to 2019. Our dependent variables are the logs of the various hospital operating cost categories, and alternative metrics for EHR use/functionality serve as the primary independent variables of interest. Data on EHR use/functionality are retrieved from the American Hospital Association's (AHA)

SUBMITTER: Rhoades CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9329141 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature