Information technology in emergency medicine residency-affiliated emergency departments.
OBJECTIVE
To describe acquisition and implementation of information technology (IT) in U.S. emergency medicine (EM) residency-affiliated emergency departments (EDs), including automatic medication error checking.


METHODS
This was a survey of all U.S. EM residencies active in September 2000. Respondents specified whether specific IT tools had been "acquired" and "implemented fully." EDs were categorized according to primary versus affiliated training site, trauma level, and census. Numbers of "yes" responses were compared according to ED type (Kruskal-Wallis test, p < or = 0.05 significant).


RESULTS
Of 121 residency programs, data were obtained from 93 (77%) for a total of 149 EDs. The percentages of EDs that reported full implementation for each technology are as follows: medication error checking, 7%; medication order entry, 18%; nonmedication orders, 7%; clinical documentation, 21%; old electrocardiograms, 62%; laboratory results, 84%; radiography order entry, 62%; image retrieval, 29%; radiologists' interpretations, 67%; cardiology reports, 62%; pathology reports, 70%; surgical reports/dictations, 60%; triage, 34%; tracking, 46%; electronic reference materials, 56%; registration, 84%; accounts, 72%; patient management software package, 20%; voice recognition, 7%. Trauma centers reported more IT tools than nontrauma centers (p = 0.01), and primary training sites reported fewer IT tools than affiliated EDs (p = 0.027).


CONCLUSIONS
Incorporation of IT is not uniform in EDs where EM residents train. Acquisition of effective IT tools varies, and implementation lags behind acquisition. Fully implemented IT for medication error checking was reported in 7% of EDs; an additional 12% had acquired IT without implementing it fully.
Pallin
Daniel
D
Departments of Emergency Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02215, USA. dpallin@partners.org
Lahman
MeeMee
M
Baumlin
Kevin
K
D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000193:education*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D006306:Health Surveys; D006751:Hospital Information Systems / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007256:Information Systems / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007396:Internship and Residency; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires