Abstract
This research report describes three year trends in nursing home health information technology (HIT) adoption, called IT Sophistication, and quality measures. Three dimensions of IT Sophistication include IT capabilities, extent of IT use, and degree of IT integration. Dimensions are measured in three health domains (resident care, clinical support, administrative activities). Nine subscales and 1 Total IT Sophistication measure were created by combining domains/dimensions for each facility. Trends were identified using a previously validated survey the author created. In Year 1, 815 facilities participated; Year 2, 484 facilities repeated the survey; Year 3, 447 facilities completed the last survey. A smaller set of 306 facilities completed surveys in all years. Facilities represented all US states each year. For this analysis, the author reports on 448 facilities completing Year 1 and Year 3 surveys. Initial weights used in this analysis were related to proportions of homes in a state that responded. Responding homes typically differ to some degree relative to numbers of homes with characteristics of bedsize, ownership, chain membership, and location. Post-stratification was used to obtain appropriate weights. Differences in IT sophistication were not significant in homes with different bedsize (p=.16), ownership (p=.23), chain (p=.67), or location (p=.07). When looking at the two year change (Year 3-Year 1) all dimensions and domains and Total IT had significant changes except IT capabilities in administrative activities. Total IT appears to be significantly (p<.01) correlated with three quality measures related to incontinence, infection, and use of antianxiety medications.