Going digital: adoption of electronic health records in assisted living facilities

This pilot study examines the associations between structural characteristics and the adoption and subsequent use of electronic health records (EHR; resident demographics, clinical notes, medication lists, problem lists, discharge summaries, and advance directives) as a process characteristic in assisted living facilities (ALFs). The study is guided conceptually by Donabedian's Structure-Process-Outcome (SPO) model. Primary survey data were collected from a randomly selected sample (N = 76) in Florida during 2009-2010. Analysis included descriptive and bivariate statistics. Descriptive results indicated that ALFs most frequently used an EHR to record medication lists. Characteristics, including size, profit status, resident case mix, and staffing, were associated at the bivariate level with the use of one or more functional domains of an EHR. Thus, the use of EHRs in ALFs is correlated with facility characteristics.