Incentive mechanism for sharing and using EHR in medical consortiums based on performance evaluation

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Healthcare Management
• Economics

Background:

• Medical consortiums foster both cooperation and competition among hospitals.
• Shared use of electronic health records (EHR) disrupts existing hospital benefit distribution models.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish an incentive mechanism for shared EHR use.
• To analyze the impact of key factors on EHR sharing incentives.
• To propose management strategies for resolving conflicts arising from EHR sharing.

Main Methods:

• Developed basic and performance-evaluation-integrated incentive models for EHR sharing.
• Analyzed hospital cost, benefit, and incentive contract functions.
• Utilized MATLAB simulations to compare incentive effects before and after performance evaluation integration.

Main Results:

• Hospital profit and incentive coefficients for EHR sharing are independent of government subsidies.
• Incentive coefficients increase with ρ and τ, but decrease with β, δ, and γ, irrespective of performance evaluation.
• Performance evaluation inclusion amplifies the positive impact of EHR utilization on incentives and benefits.
• The value-added coefficient's impact on earnings is greater with performance evaluation.

Conclusions:

• Enhancing EHR utilization capacity and value-added potential are crucial for sustainable EHR sharing.
• Substantive performance evaluation is vital for stabilizing incentive effects in EHR sharing systems.