Health IT and inappropriate utilization of outpatient imaging: A cross-sectional study of U.S. hospitals

To determine whether the use of information technology (IT), measured by Meaningful Use capability, is associated with lower rates of inappropriate utilization of imaging services in hospital outpatient settings.

A retrospective cross-sectional analysis of 3332 nonfederal U.S. hospitals using data from: Hospital Compare (2011 outpatient imaging efficiency measures), HIMSS Analytics (2009 health IT), and Health Indicator Warehouse (market characteristics). Hospitals were categorized for their health IT infrastructure including EHR Stage-1 capability, and three advanced imaging functionalities/systems including integrated picture archiving and communication system, Web-based image distribution, and clinical decision support (CDS) with physician pathways. Three imaging efficiency measures suggesting inappropriate utilization during 2011 included: percentage of "combined" (with and without contrast) computed tomography (CT) studies out of all CT studies for abdomen and chest respectively, and percentage of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies of lumbar spine without antecedent conservative therapy within 60days. For each measure, three separate regression models (GLM with gamma-log link function, and denominator of imaging measure as exposure) were estimated adjusting for hospital characteristics, market characteristics, and state fixed effects. Additionally, Heckman's Inverse Mills Ratio and propensity for Stage-1 EHR capability were used to account for selection bias.

We find support for association of each of the four health IT capabilities with inappropriate utilization rates of one or more imaging modality. Stage-1 EHR capability is associated with lower inappropriate utilization rates for chest CT (incidence rate ratio IRR=0.72, p-value <0.01) and lumbar MRI (IRR=0.87, p-value <0.05). Integrated PACS is associated with lower inappropriate utilization rate of abdomen CT (IRR=0.84, p-value <0.05). Imaging distribution over Web capability is associated with lower inappropriate utilization rates for chest CT (IRR=0.66, p-value <0.05) and lumbar MRI (IRR=0.86, p-value <0.05). CDS with physician pathways is associated with lower inappropriate utilization rates for abdomen CT (IRR=0.87, p-value <0.01) and lumbar MRI (IRR=0.90, p-value <0.05). All other cases showed no association.

The study offers mixed results. Taken together, the results suggest that the use of Stage-1 Meaningful Use capable EHR systems along with advanced imaging related functionalities could have a beneficial impact on reducing some of the inappropriate utilization of outpatient imaging.