TY - JOUR
T1 - The impact of an integrated hospital-community medical information system on quality of care and medical service utilisation in primary-care clinics
AU - Nirel, Nurit
AU - Rosen, Bruce
AU - Sharon, Assaf
AU - Samuel, Hadar
AU - Cohen, Arnon D.
N1 - Funding Information:
The study was financed with the assistance of a research grant from Israel’s National Institute of Health Policy and Health Policy Research.
PY - 2011/3/1
Y1 - 2011/3/1
N2 - Background. In 2005, an innovative system of hospital-community, on-line medical records (OFEK) was introduced in Clalit Health Services (CHS). Goals. To examine OFEK's use and impact on quality indicators and medical-service utilisation in CHS primary-care clinics. Methods. Examining the frequency of OFEK's use with its own track-log data; comparing 'before' and 'after' quality indicators and service utilisation of experimental versus control clinics. Results. Use of OFEK increased by hundreds of percent between 2005 and 2006, continued rising at a slower rate in 2007 and decreased slightly in 2008. At clinics in catchment areas of hospitals using OFEK extensively, OFEK reduced the number of imaging tests and, to a lesser extent, laboratory testing and improved several quality measures. An examination of all clinics in the catchment areas and in the study revealed a much weaker impact. Conclusions. OFEK's introduction affected a number of outcome measures - some, significantly - in medical and financial terms. Its increased use at additional clinics may exert a stronger impact there, too. The study contributes to the development of measures to examine the impact of such systems, which can be used to assess a broad range of Health Information Technology (HIT) systems.
AB - Background. In 2005, an innovative system of hospital-community, on-line medical records (OFEK) was introduced in Clalit Health Services (CHS). Goals. To examine OFEK's use and impact on quality indicators and medical-service utilisation in CHS primary-care clinics. Methods. Examining the frequency of OFEK's use with its own track-log data; comparing 'before' and 'after' quality indicators and service utilisation of experimental versus control clinics. Results. Use of OFEK increased by hundreds of percent between 2005 and 2006, continued rising at a slower rate in 2007 and decreased slightly in 2008. At clinics in catchment areas of hospitals using OFEK extensively, OFEK reduced the number of imaging tests and, to a lesser extent, laboratory testing and improved several quality measures. An examination of all clinics in the catchment areas and in the study revealed a much weaker impact. Conclusions. OFEK's introduction affected a number of outcome measures - some, significantly - in medical and financial terms. Its increased use at additional clinics may exert a stronger impact there, too. The study contributes to the development of measures to examine the impact of such systems, which can be used to assess a broad range of Health Information Technology (HIT) systems.
KW - Health information technology
KW - health plans
KW - health services utilisation
KW - primary care clinics
KW - quality of care
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/79951598375
U2 - 10.3109/17538157.2010.535130
DO - 10.3109/17538157.2010.535130
M3 - Article
C2 - 21291299
AN - SCOPUS:79951598375
SN - 1753-8157
VL - 36
SP - 63
EP - 74
JO - Informatics for Health and Social Care
JF - Informatics for Health and Social Care
IS - 2
ER -