Can Electronic Medical Record Systems Transform Health Care? Potential Health Benefits, Savings, And Costs
Abstract
To broadly examine the potential health and financial benefits of health information technology (HIT), this paper compares health care with the use of IT in other industries. It estimates potential savings and costs of widespread adoption of electronic medical record (EMR) systems, models important health and safety benefits, and concludes that effective EMR implementation and networking could eventually save more than $81 billion annually--by improving health care efficiency and safety--and that HIT-enabled prevention and management of chronic disease could eventually double those savings while increasing health and other social benefits. However, this is unlikely to be realized without related changes to the health care system.
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Existing literature on the benefits of electronic records is largely U.S. or primary care based and reports potential rather than actual benefits, with a large proportion of this evidence reporting the potential for electronic records to improve patient safety.
“Existing literature on the benefits of electronic records is largely U.S or primary care based [18–34] and reports ‘potential’ rather than actual benefits; with a large proportion of this evidence reporting the potential for electronic records to improve patient safety [19, 21, 23, 27–30].”
From Exploring the implementation of an electronic record into a maternity unit: a qualitative study using Normalisation Process Theory (2017) · cites this paper as [27]
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- Authors
- Hillestad, R., Bigelow, J., Bower, A., Girosi, F., Meili, R., Scoville, R., & Taylor, R.
- Affiliations
- RAND Corporation (US)
- Venue
- Health Affairs
- Publisher
- Health Affairs Publishing, LLC
- Published
- 2005-09
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 1103-1117
- ISSN
- 0278-2715 (ISSN-L)
- 1544-5208
- OpenAlex
- W2141847884
- Cited by
- 1,675
- References
- 17
- Citations by year
- 2026: 23 · 2025: 31 · 2024: 47 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 55 · 2021: 63 · 2020: 78 · 2019: 93 · 2018: 88 · 2017: 78 · 2016: 113 · 2015: 119 · 2014: 125 · 2013: 145 · 2012: 127
- FWCI
- 102.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Health Affairs (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (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, health information technology, health care costs, cost reduction, health care efficiency, patient safety, chronic disease prevention, chronic disease management, health care reform, information technology adoption, health benefits
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Cost Control, Delivery of Health Care, Diffusion of Innovation, Health Expenditures, Humans, Middle Aged, Quality of Health Care, United States, Medical Records Systems, Computerized, Efficiency, Organizational
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