Relationship between information technology functionalities and hospital-acquired injurious fall rates in US acute care hospitals

Huey-Ming Tzeng, Hsou Mei Hu, Chang-Yi Yin, Yu Kang

College of Nursing, Washington State University, Spokane, USA.
Department of History, Chinese Culture University, Taipei, Chinese Taipei.
Department of Public Health and Health Sciences, School of Health Professions and Studies, University of Michigan-Flint, Flint, USA.
Office of Clinical Affairs, University of Michigan Hospitals & Health Centers, Ann Arbor, USA.

DOI: 10.4236/ojn.2012.22016                

Abstract

The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine health information technology functionalities in inpatient care units that were associated with reduced fall risk among adult patients aged 65 years or older in acute care hospitals in the United States. This study compared the differences in the hospital-acquired injurious fall rates for hospitals in California, Florida, and New York with and without fully implemented IT functionalities in their general medical and surgical inpatient units. It used publicly available 2007 datasets, the hospital was the unit of analysis, and teaching and non-teaching hospitals were analyzed separately. Hospital-acquired injurious falls were identified based on fall-related primary and secondary diagnoses and were flagged by the hospitals as not “present on admission” in the 2007 California, Florida, and New York State Inpatient Database data. The 4 health IT functionalities in general medical and surgical inpatient units were 1) electronic clinical documentation, 2) results viewing, 3) computerized provider order entry, and 4) decision support. The research question was What are the effective health IT functionalities in the general medical and surgical units for reducing fall risk among adult patients aged 65 years or older at their hospitals? Independent t tests were used. The results showed that no significant difference was found in the hospital-acquired injurious fall rates between hospitals with and without each of the 4 functionalities and between the teaching hospitals with and without each of the 4 functionalities. Significant differences were found in the injurious fall rates between non-teaching hospitals with and without electronic clinical documentation and result viewing. Future research may focus on assessing the clinicians’ use of the IT functionalities of electronic clinical documentation and results viewing, as well as the effect of the clinicians’ use patterns on patient outcomes.

Keywords

Hospitals; Accidental Fall; Inpatients; Electronic Health Records; Clinical Decision Support Systems; Order Entry Systems; Safety; Quality of Health Care

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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