title: Adopting information technology to drive improvements in patient safety: lessons from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality health information technology grantees.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To document and assess the experiences of 104 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)-funded health information technology (health IT) grantees in planning and implementing health IT systems.
  
  
  METHODS
  Grant proposals and interviews with the AHRQ health IT grantees.
  
  
  METHODS
  Extracted descriptive data from the health IT grant proposals; conducted telephone interviews with principal investigators.
  
  
  RESULTS
  AHRQ funding of the health IT projects provided important support for health IT development work in various health care settings. Successful implementation required commitment from top management, dedicated staff and financial resources, an open process to encourage buy-in and enthusiasm by end users, and sheer persistence. Technologies required tailoring to the specific organization's needs. Grantees felt their projects could be replicated by others, if organizations had ample IT expertise and resources. Evaluating the value of health IT was hampered by the absence of validated instruments and measures, organizational demands that competed with data collection, and lack of evaluation expertise among health IT implementers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Experiences of the health IT grantees provide rich information for use by health care providers, AHRQ, and other policy makers to help strengthen future health IT development efforts, including the need to improve evaluation design and standards to assess impact.
authors: RAND, 1776 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90407, USA. damberg@rand.org
authors: Cheryl L
authors: CL
authors: Damberg
authors: M Susan
authors: MS
authors: Ridgely
authors: Rebecca
authors: R
authors: Shaw
authors: Robin C
authors: RC
authors: Meili
authors: Melony E S
authors: ME
authors: Sorbero
authors: Lily A
authors: LA
authors: Bradley
authors: Donna O
authors: DO
authors: Farley
mesh_terms: D003659:Decision Making, Organizational; D006284:Health Plan Implementation; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D019300:Medical Errors / Q000517:prevention & control; D008490:Medical Informatics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017751:Safety Management / Q000458:organization & administration*; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000458:organization & administration; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D016270:United States Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality