Temporal Impacts of Health Information Technology on Hospitals’ Financial Performance

Investments in health information technology (HIT) are known to improve financial and operational performance in hospitals. However, it is less understood whether this improvement is short-term, medium-term, or long-term. This paper investigates the effect of HIT investments on hospitals’...

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Main Authors: Sahir, Shah, Durga Prasad, Somarouthu, Ano, Bhattacherjee
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: INTI International University 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:http://eprints.intimal.edu.my/1786/
http://eprints.intimal.edu.my/1786/1/jods2023_09.pdf
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author Sahir, Shah
Durga Prasad, Somarouthu
Ano, Bhattacherjee
author_facet Sahir, Shah
Durga Prasad, Somarouthu
Ano, Bhattacherjee
author_sort Sahir, Shah
building INTI Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Investments in health information technology (HIT) are known to improve financial and operational performance in hospitals. However, it is less understood whether this improvement is short-term, medium-term, or long-term. This paper investigates the effect of HIT investments on hospitals’ cost-to-charge ratio, a financial metric that accounts for both costs and revenues, at different time lags after the initial investment. Using panel data on U.S.hospitals from 2010 to 2021, we report that the impact of HIT on hospital cost-to-charge ratio is realized with a lag of zero to four years, when controlled for hospital differences such as rural vs urban location, public vs private ownership, proportion of uncompensated care, and year-over-year variations. This effect becomes non-significant after four years as the effect of HIT wears out. We also quantify the returns from HIT investment. A 100% increase in HIT investment results in a reduction of 3.3 to 6.0% in cost-to-charge ratio between years 0 through 4 after the HIT investment. Implications of these findings for research and practice are described
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spelling intimal-17862025-02-06T08:58:26Z http://eprints.intimal.edu.my/1786/ Temporal Impacts of Health Information Technology on Hospitals’ Financial Performance Sahir, Shah Durga Prasad, Somarouthu Ano, Bhattacherjee Q Science (General) QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science QA76 Computer software Investments in health information technology (HIT) are known to improve financial and operational performance in hospitals. However, it is less understood whether this improvement is short-term, medium-term, or long-term. This paper investigates the effect of HIT investments on hospitals’ cost-to-charge ratio, a financial metric that accounts for both costs and revenues, at different time lags after the initial investment. Using panel data on U.S.hospitals from 2010 to 2021, we report that the impact of HIT on hospital cost-to-charge ratio is realized with a lag of zero to four years, when controlled for hospital differences such as rural vs urban location, public vs private ownership, proportion of uncompensated care, and year-over-year variations. This effect becomes non-significant after four years as the effect of HIT wears out. We also quantify the returns from HIT investment. A 100% increase in HIT investment results in a reduction of 3.3 to 6.0% in cost-to-charge ratio between years 0 through 4 after the HIT investment. Implications of these findings for research and practice are described INTI International University 2023-08 Article PeerReviewed text en cc_by_4 http://eprints.intimal.edu.my/1786/1/jods2023_09.pdf Sahir, Shah and Durga Prasad, Somarouthu and Ano, Bhattacherjee (2023) Temporal Impacts of Health Information Technology on Hospitals’ Financial Performance. Journal of Data Science, 2023 (9). pp. 1-6. ISSN 2805-5160 http://ipublishing.intimal.edu.my/jods.html
spellingShingle Q Science (General)
QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
QA76 Computer software
Sahir, Shah
Durga Prasad, Somarouthu
Ano, Bhattacherjee
Temporal Impacts of Health Information Technology on Hospitals’ Financial Performance
title Temporal Impacts of Health Information Technology on Hospitals’ Financial Performance
title_full Temporal Impacts of Health Information Technology on Hospitals’ Financial Performance
title_fullStr Temporal Impacts of Health Information Technology on Hospitals’ Financial Performance
title_full_unstemmed Temporal Impacts of Health Information Technology on Hospitals’ Financial Performance
title_short Temporal Impacts of Health Information Technology on Hospitals’ Financial Performance
title_sort temporal impacts of health information technology on hospitals’ financial performance
topic Q Science (General)
QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
QA76 Computer software
url http://eprints.intimal.edu.my/1786/
http://eprints.intimal.edu.my/1786/
http://eprints.intimal.edu.my/1786/1/jods2023_09.pdf