Urban-rural differences in the availability of hospital information technology applications: a survey of Georgia hospitals.
BACKGROUND
Information technology (IT) has been identified as a potential tool for improving the safety of health care delivery.


OBJECTIVE
To determine if there are significant differences between urban and rural community hospitals in the availability of selected IT functional applications and technological devices.


METHODS
A mailed survey of community hospitals in Georgia assessing the current availability of IT applications (54.6% response rate).


RESULTS
Georgia hospitals reported having 63.6% of 56 possible functional applications computerized but only 52.9% of 41 technological devices. Compared to rural hospitals, urban hospitals had significantly more functional applications computerized (38.0 vs 31.8, P = .031) and technological devices available (23.9 vs 18.2, P = .016). Urban hospitals had significantly (P < .05) more IT applications available in 4 areas: emergency room services (7 of 10), surgical/operating room (8 of 12), laboratory (7 of 12), and radiology (5 of 11). Overall, the availability of IT applications was bimodal in rural hospitals: over 40% of rural hospitals had adopted over 70% of all applications, while approximately 26% of rural hospitals had adopted less than 30%.


CONCLUSIONS
Some of the observed urban/rural differences in availability of IT applications may be due to differences in the scope of services provided by rural hospitals, in particular laboratories, radiology departments, emergency rooms, and surgery/operating rooms. Nevertheless, the bimodal distribution of IT applications adopted in rural hospitals raises concerns about the ability of selected rural hospitals to take advantage of regional data-sharing initiatives and maintain quality of patient care in the future.
Culler
Steven D
SD
Department of Health Policy and Management, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. sculler@sph.emory.edu
Atherly
Adam
A
Walczak
Sandra
S
Davis
Anne
A
Hawley
Jonathan N
JN
Rask
Kimberly J
KJ
Naylor
Vi
V
Thorpe
Kenneth E
KE
D005845:Georgia; D006751:Hospital Information Systems; D006780:Hospitals, Rural / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006786:Hospitals, Urban / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D005791:Patient Care / Q000379:methods