Do Electronic Health Records Affect Quality of Care? Evidence from the HITECH Act
Abstract
The 2009 Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act is landmark legislation that places electronic health record (EHR) technologies at the center of health system reform in the United States. This study leverages the meaningful use (MU) provisions of the HITECH Act to quantify different degrees of EHR use in a large and heterogeneous set of hospitals and investigates the impact of EHR use on quality of care. The results provide evidence of EHRs’ positive quality effects and reconcile earlier mixed findings in the EHR evaluation literature by showing that their benefits vary according to different levels of use and hospital characteristics. The effect sizes were larger in disadvantaged (i.e., small and rural) hospitals, suggesting the potential of EHRs in mitigating the disparities in the quality of healthcare.
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Greater EHR use does not automatically translate into improved care quality.
“However, empirical studies consistently show that greater EHR use does not automatically translate into improved care quality6.”
From When better data meets better design: How EHR data usability and system usability shape physicians' cognitive load (2026) · cites this paper as [6]
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References 46 · Cited by 101
- Authors
- Lin, Y.-K., Lin, M., & Chen, H.
- Affiliations
- Georgia State University (US)
- Georgia Institute of Technology (US)
- University of Arizona (US)
- Corresponding author
- Lin, Mingfeng
- Venue
- Information Systems Research
- Published
- 2019-03
- Volume
- 30
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 306-318
- ISSN
- 1047-7047 (ISSN-L)
- 1526-5536
- OpenAlex
- W2921873324
- Cited by
- 101
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 11.78
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Information Systems Research (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Health Information Management › Electronic Health Records Systems
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Health Information Management › Medical Coding and Health Information
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Healthcare Policy and Management
- Keywords
- electronic health records, quality of care, HITECH Act, meaningful use, hospitals, health information technology adoption, health disparities, rural hospitals, small hospitals, health care reform
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