Is More Health Information Technology Better?

Health information technology, such as electronic medical records, computerized provider order entry systems, and clinical decision support systems, have been touted to improve patient safety and quality of care while lowering costs. In most studies, researchers have examined the effect of individual technologies in single centers; such results are not generalizable across hospital settings.

In this cross-sectional study, physicians at 41 metropolitan acute-care hospitals throughout Texas provided responses to the Clinical Information Technology Assessment Tool (CITAT), a validated questionnaire that measures a hospital's level of automation based on physician interactions with its information system. (Thirty-one additional surveyed hospital…