While health IT has the potential to improve patient safety, increase efficiency and reduce the cost of care, lack of proper implementation is preventing the realization of those benefits, according to a University of Missouri School of Medicine researcher.

Naresh Khatri, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Health Management and Informatics at the MU School of Medicine, identified three IT capabilities hospitals should have that lead to higher rates of employee productivity and flexibility. He says greater employee productivity leads to improved patient care.

Findings were published in Health Care Management Review.

Khatri and his research team surveyed representatives from more than 450 hospitals across the U.S., asking about hospitals’ IT capabilities, quality of patient care and the productivity and employee flexibility, with “flexibility” defined as employees’ being willing to take on increasing workloads during challenging times.

The team then used the survey answers to test whether the relationship of certain IT capabilities and the quality of patient care delivered could be controlled by employee productivity. Certain IT capabilities had significant positive correlations with employee productivity, they found, which in turn improved the quality of patient care.

For more productive employees U.S. hospitals need a competent and visionary chief information officer, an IT infrastructure designed to develop IT applications that improve patient care and business processes, and on-site IT professionals with expertise developing cost-effective IT programs that support clinical and business needs of the organization, Khatri said.

“To deliver exemplary care, healthcare workers need technologies that can support them in their interactions with patients,” Khatri said. “This means moving from clinician-centric to patient-centric IT models.”

Hospitals with greater IT capabilities may get more out of their IT investments because they are better at identifying more appropriate, potent and cost-effective health IT that can be deployed more effectively, the survey results indicated.