title: Urban-rural differences in the availability of hospital information technology applications: a survey of Georgia hospitals.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Policy and Management, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. sculler@sph.emory.edu
authors.forename: Steven D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Culler
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Atherly
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Walczak
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.forename: Jonathan N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Hawley
authors.forename: Kimberly J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Rask
authors.forename: Vi
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Naylor
authors.forename: Kenneth E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Thorpe
mesh_terms: 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