Hospital adoption of information technologies and improved patient safety: a study of 98 hospitals in Florida

Most of the studies linking the use of information technology (IT) to improved patient safety have been conducted in academic medical centers or have focused on a single institution or IT application. Our study explored the relationship between overall IT adoption and patient safety performance across hospitals in Florida. Primary data on hospital IT adoption were combined with secondary hospital discharge data. Regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between measures of IT adoption and the Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs) of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. We found that eight PSIs were related to at least one measure of IT adoption. Compared with administrative IT adoption, clinical IT adoption was related to more patient safety outcome measures. Hospitals with the most sophisticated and mature IT infrastructures performed significantly better on the largest number of PSIs. Adoption of IT is associated with desirable performance on many important measures of hospital patient safety. Hospital leaders and other decision makers who are examining IT systems should consider the impact of IT on patient safety.