Financial incentives, quality improvement programs, and the adoption of clinical information technology.
OBJECTIVE
Physician use of clinical information technology (CIT) is important for the management of chronic illness, but has lagged behind expectations. We studied the role of health insurers' financial incentives (including pay-for-performance) and quality improvement initiatives in accelerating adoption of CIT in large physician practices.


METHODS
National survey of all medical groups and independent practice association (IPA) physician organizations with 20 or more physicians in the United States in 2006 to 2007. The response rate was 60.3%. Use of 19 CIT capabilities was measured. Multivariate statistical analysis of financial and organizational factors associated with adoption and use of CIT.


RESULTS
Use of information technology varied across physician organizations, including electronic access to laboratory test results (medical groups, 49.3%; IPAs, 19.6%), alerts for potential drug interactions (medical groups, 33.9%; IPAs, 9.5%), electronic drug prescribing (medical groups, 41.9%; IPAs, 25.1%), and physician use of e-mail with patients (medical groups, 34.2%; IPAs, 29.1%). Adoption of CIT was stronger for physician organizations evaluated by external entities for pay-for-performance and public reporting purposes (P = 0.042) and for those participating in quality improvement initiatives (P < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
External incentives and participation in quality improvement initiatives are associated with greater use of CIT by large physician practices.
Robinson
James C
JC
University of California, School of Public Health, Berkeley, California 94720-7360, USA. james.robinson@berkeley.edu
Casalino
Lawrence P
LP
Gillies
Robin R
RR
Rittenhouse
Diane R
DR
Shortell
Stephen S
SS
Fernandes-Taylor
Sara
S
D002908:Chronic Disease; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D006123:Group Practice; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008490:Medical Informatics; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000191:economics; D012052:Reimbursement, Incentive; D014481:United States