EHR Experts

Electronic health record and electronic prescribing systems can deliver substantial socioeconomic benefits that eventually exceed their costs, but such benefits take a long time to materialize, according to a new European Commission study, E-Health Europe reports.

The final report of the European Commission’s EHR IMPACT study looked at more than 700 indicators of cost and benefits based on case studies of 11 EHR and e-prescribing systems being used in Europe, the U.S. and Israel.

The report concludes, “It takes at least four and more typically up to nine years before initiatives produce their first positive annual [socioeconomic return], and six to 11 years to realize a cumulative net benefit.”

The report notes that there are high costs in purchasing, deploying and using new health IT systems, as well as in involving clinical and managerial staff in the new systems. It concludes that realizing the financial benefits of health IT will depend on executive and managerial expertise in organizational change and resource management.

The report also notes that interoperability is key because many of the socioeconomic benefits of EHR systems are derived from making data more accessible.

The study concludes that because socioeconomic gains from health IT systems eventually exceed their costs and become substantial, “investment in such systems is worthwhile and justifies their net financial boost” (Whitfield, E-Health Europe, 12/16).

Above article published on http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2009/12/17/ehr-benefits-take-time-to-realize-european-commission-study-finds.aspx

Filed under: EHR, Electronic Health Records on December 18th, 2009