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Association between Full Electronic Medical Record System Adoption and Drug Use: Antibiotics and Polypharmacy
Young-Taek Park1, Donghwan Kim2, Rae Woong Park3
1Department of Information and Communication Technology, Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, Wonju, Korea.
Healthcare Informatics Research
|February 22, 2020
Summary
Full adoption of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems was linked to reduced antibiotic prescriptions in hospitals but increased polypharmacy in clinics. Further research is needed on these mixed findings for healthcare organizations.
Area of Science:
- Health Informatics
- Health Services Research
- Pharmaceutical Policy
Background:
- Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems are increasingly adopted in healthcare organizations (HCOs).
- The impact of EMR system features on drug utilization remains an area of active investigation.
- Understanding these associations is crucial for optimizing healthcare quality and resource management.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between full Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system adoption and drug use in healthcare organizations (HCOs).
- To explore if specific EMR features like electronic prescribing, medicines reconciliation, and decision support influence drug utilization patterns.
- To analyze nation-wide data for associations between EMR adoption and antibiotic prescription rates and polypharmacy.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional study design utilizing survey data on EMR adoption levels from the OECD ICT study (2013-2014) in Korea.
- Survey respondents included hospital chief information officers and primary care practitioners.
- Drug utilization outcomes, specifically antibiotic prescription rates and polypharmacy (≥6 drugs), were extracted from the national health insurance administrative dataset.
Main Results:
- Full EMR adoption was associated with a 16.1% decrease in antibiotic prescriptions compared to partial adoption in hospitals (p=0.041).
- Clinics fully adopting EMR systems showed a significant association with higher polypharmacy rates (36.9%, p=0.001).
- No significant association was found between full EMR adoption and polypharmacy in hospitals.
Conclusions:
- EMR system adoption shows mixed results regarding drug utilization, suggesting potential confounding effects.
- Full EMR adoption in hospitals may contribute to reducing antibiotic drug use, potentially due to specific system functions.
- The positive association between full EMR adoption and polypharmacy in general hospitals and clinics warrants further investigation.
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