Physicians at children’s hospitals have embraced clinical information technology designed to enhance quality and safety, according to data from the 2007 Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study. Forty-four percent of physicians at children’s hospitals order medications electronically, compared with 36 percent of physicians at Most Wired hospitals. Nearly as many doctors at children’s hospitals as at Most Wired hospitals use online allergy and dose-checking alerts. Children’s hospitals employ a larger percentage of their physicians than do Most Wired and least wired hospitals, which can improve IT adoption, but these data points also suggest that physicians at children’s hospitals benefit from customized, easy-to-use systems.
Nurses at children’s hospitals, however, appear to be struggling with automated medication processes. Only 16 percent of nurses at children’s hospitals match medication orders at the bedside, compared with 9 percent of least wired hospitals and 28 percent of Most Wired hospitals. Forty-one percent of children’s hospitals do not perform any electronic medication matching, putting them on par with the least wired group. These figures represent a breakdown in children’s hospitals’ safety efforts.
Despite their sizeable IT budgets and staffing, children’s hospitals are overlooking important functions in their back offices. Only 20 percent of children’s hospitals perform medical necessity criteria checks compared with 85 percent of Most Wired hospitals and 40 percent of least wired hospitals. They also trail Most Wired hospitals in denial management and testing transactions for compliance. The lack of automation in these areas is costing children’s hospitals much-needed revenue.
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?*Most Wired: Aggregate data for the 100 highest scoring respondents; **Least wired: Aggregate data for the 100 lowest scoring respondents; ***Children’s Hospitals: Aggregate data for 16 children’s hospitals; Source: H&HN’s Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study, 2007
This article first appeared in the Fall issue of HHN's Most Wired Magazine.
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