title: Impact of electronic health records on nurses' productivity.
abstract: As the use of electronic health records increases, it becomes necessary to address their global impact on nurses' productivity in hospitals. A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted to explore the impact of electronic health records on nurses' productivity and to examine whether the impacts are moderated through case-mix index or adjusted patient-days. Two sources of data were linked and analyzed for years 2007 and 2008: the American Hospital Association survey and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services data. Almost two-thirds of the respondent hospitals in both years (63.9% in 2007 and 68.4% in 2008) had a high electronic health record index (≥5). Hospitals with higher penetration of electronic health records had more RNs employed (coefficient=0.234, P=.002) compared with hospitals with low penetration of electronic health records, even when controlling for adjusted patient-day volumes. This difference decreased for hospitals with higher case-mix index values. The study findings fail to suggest any financial savings or superior productivity in nurses due to usage of electronic health records.
authors.affiliation: Fleming Centre for Healthcare Management and School of Public Health, University of Texas, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
authors.forename: Ibrahim
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Abbass
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Helton
authors.forename: Shivani
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mhatre
authors.forename: Sujit S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Sansgiry
mesh_terms: D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D016208:Databases, Factual; D003953:Diagnosis-Related Groups / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004526:Efficiency; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014481:United States