Health IT improves patient care in nursing homes but is hampered by lack of funding

Researchers from the University of Missouri explored the importance of health information technology in the hope of raising awareness for seniors in nursing homes.

As a part of the push toward improving healthcare IT across the country, the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act invested $25 billion to improve the quality, safety and efficiently of hospitals. Unfortunately, nursing homes did not receive a larger enough investment to implement health IT on a level near that of hospitals. With the senior population steadily rising, this poses a major risk to those placed in nursing homes where the care would not be as effective.

"Approximately 16,000 nursing homes exist in the United States, and more than one million older Americans depend on nursing homes for their care," said Greg Alexander, professor in the Sinclair School of Nursing. "Yet despite the significant role nursing homes play in health care, nursing homes do not receive the same financial incentives to upgrade their IT systems as hospitals."

Researchers, led by Alexander at the University of Missouri, conducted a study to show the association between the increase in health IT utilization and improving the quality of patient care. The study aims to produce evidence to show the need for health IT in all aspect of healthcare, including the nursing homes that lack funds to implement the technology themselves.

Along with Richard Madsen, a statistician with the medical research office in the MU School of Medicine, the research team analyzed national trends in IT implementation over a three-year period suing an IT sophistication survey. The survey included results for different topics including IT capabilities, how often IT was used, IT integration, how it was utilized in resident care, clinical support and administrative activities.

"The scores indicated that technology is becoming a greater part of resident care in areas where physicians and nurses work, not just in areas of administration and billing," said Alexander. "We found that as IT sophistication increases in resident care, there appears to be a positive impact on quality measures. This finding means that if nursing home staff have access to the right technological tools and are using them to facilitate resident care, quality of care can and should improve."