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Saturday, 16 November 2013
Learning Objective 1: 1. Describe the need and background to quantify the effect of EHR on nursing processes and patient outcomes.
Learning Objective 2: 2. Describe the sample characteristics, descriptive and inferential results.
The use of electronic health records (EHR) is one promising system-level initiative that may improve provider performance, interdisciplinary communication, reduce adverse patient events, improve the overall quality of patient care, and ultimately improve patient satisfaction with hospital care. This cross-sectional study will empirically examine levels of EHR functionality and utilization and its association with the delivery of nursing care, taking into account a large number of patient characteristics as well as hospital characteristics including measures of nurse staffing and organizational climate. The sample includes 2006 nurse survey data from more than 7,000 registered nurses working in 72 acute care hospitals in New Jersey, and patient discharge data from approximately one million patients hospitalized during the same time. Study data will be compiled from five sources including: 1) the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) State Inpatient Database (SID) available from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), 2) data on hospital characteristics from New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services (NJDHSS), 3) Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Dorenfest Institute database of EHR implementation, 4) Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) data from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Survey (HCAHPS), and 5) New Jersey nurse survey data. Outcomes of interest include nursing-sensitive AHRQ patient safety indicators (PSIs), length of stay, hospital readmission, and patient satisfaction. It is anticipated this will impact public health by generating knowledge that can be used to direct valuable resources with the greatest positive effect for hospitalized patients. To this end, this study will add to the transformation of healthcare in the US.