Is your hospital interested in having more productive and flexible employees, as well as better patient care? There are a few key IT capabilities that can facilitate that goal, according to research published recently in Health Care Management Review.
In a survey of more than 450 U.S. hospitals, researchers found that three IT capabilities had a significant positive correlation with employee productivity -- and, as a result, improvements in the quality of patient care:
- A competent and visionary chief information officer (CIO)
- An IT infrastructure designed to develop applications that improve patient care and business processes
- Onsite IT professionals with expertise in developing cost-effective IT programs that support an organization's clinical and business needs
As part of an effort to investigate the role of in-house IT capabilities in the effective implementation of health IT systems, Naresh Khatri, PhD, and Vishal Gupta, PhD, asked hospital representatives questions regarding their organization's capabilities, quality of patient care, and employee flexibility and productivity. Employee flexibility was defined as being willing to take on increasing workloads during challenging times (Health Care Manage Rev, January/March 2016, Vol. 41:1, pp. 11-21).
Healthcare workers need technologies that can support them in interacting with patients, which means moving from clinician-centric to patient-centric IT models, according to Khatri, who is an associate professor at the University of Missouri School of Medicine.
The results also suggest that hospitals with greater IT capabilities may get more out of their IT investments because they can identify more appropriate, potent, and cost-effective health information technologies that can be deployed more effectively, Khatri said in a statement.
