EHRs provide good ROI, even in low-income settings

Implementing an EHR provides a good return on investment for hospitals in low-income areas, according to a case study published in the Journal of the American Medical Information Association. 

Researchers, led by Julia Driessen, PhD, of the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh, studied the implementation of a hospital-wide EHR in a tertiary facility in Malawi, a southeast African nation.

The researchers studied three areas of impact: length of stay, transcription time and laboratory use. When comparing the previous paper-based system to the electronic system, they found estimated cost savings in those three areas of $285,000 in U.S. dollars. When compared with the costs of installing and sustaining the EHR system, there is a net financial gain by the third year of operation. Over five years the estimated net benefit was more than $600,000.

Evaluating EHRs in low-income settings is important, the authors wrote, because such hospitals suffer from additional problems, such as staff and supply shortages, which affect how fully the benefits of an EHR are realized.

"EMR can have financial, in addition to clinical, benefits in low-income settings," the researchers said. "These results suggest that the dialogue surrounding EMR in low-income settings should focus on how, rather than whether, to make these investments."