Clinical information technology capabilities in four U.S. hospitals: testing a new structural performance measure

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Medical Information Systems
• Healthcare Technology Assessment

Background:

• Limited tools exist for evaluating hospital information system performance from a user viewpoint.
• Assessing user-perceived performance is crucial for optimizing healthcare delivery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a survey-based metric for hospital information system performance.
• To evaluate the automation and usability of hospital information systems.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study involving 117 physicians and 3 chief information officers (CIOs) across four hospitals.
• Development of the clinical information technology (CIT) index, a 100-point scale derived from 90 survey responses.
• Data collected from hospitals with varying levels of IT investment, from low to advanced.

Main Results:

• Hospitals with advanced IT systems achieved significantly higher mean physician CIT index scores (61.1-64.3) compared to low-investment hospitals (29.4-32.6).
• CIO scores mirrored physician scores, with advanced IT hospitals scoring higher (74.7-78.0) than low-investment ones (44.5).
• The CIT index demonstrated high reliability (Chronbach's alpha >.70) and low variance within hospitals.

Conclusions:

• The clinical information technology (CIT) index shows initial evidence of validity and reliability.
• This tool provides a user-centered approach to quantifying hospital information system performance.
• The findings highlight disparities in IT performance between different hospital types.