Health information technology, electronic medical records, and modern surgical procedures that enable faster recovery are but three examples of how technology is changing the health care sector. RAND research has explored many facets of health care technology and advised policymakers and practitioners on best practices for cost savings and improved patient outcomes.
Journal Article
The electronic health record (EHR) is seen by many as an ideal vehicle for measuring quality of health care and monitoring ongoing provider performance. It is anticipated that the availability of EHR-extracted data will allow quality assessment without the expensive and time-consuming process of medical record abstraction. A review of the data requirements for the indicators in the Quality Assessment Tools system suggests that only about a third of the indicators would be readily accessible from EHR data.
Journal Article
"Disruption" -- that is, fundamental, non-linear change -- may be required to achieve successful health care reform in the United States.
Commentary
As it considers ways to improve the efficiency and quality of U.S. health care, one issue that a new Congress should reconsider is the longstanding roadblock that has stalled efforts to create a system of unique patient identification numbers for every person in the United States, writes Richard Hillestad.
Report
Describes a framework for evaluating the contribution of the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application, DoD's global electronic health record, to the performance of the Military Health System.
News Release
Creating a unique patient identification number for every person in the United States would facilitate a reduction in medical errors, simplify the use of electronic medical records, increase overall efficiency and help protect patient privacy.
Research Brief
This research brief summarizes an analysis and comparison of two methods of patient identification -- statistical matching and unique patient identifier -- on error rates, operational efficiency, costs, and privacy and security issues.
Report
This monograph examines the operational advantages and disadvantages, compares the errors, examines the costs, and discusses the privacy issues associated with the unique patient identifier and with statistical matching based on personal attributes.
Research Brief
This fact sheet summarizes research suggesting that there are basic privacy issues that need to be resolved in the implementation of a national health information network.
Report
Testimony presented before the Senate Finance Committee on July 17, 2008.
Journal Article
Describes practice characteristics associated with implementation and use of e-prescribing in ambulatory settings. Successful practices exhibited greater familiarity with capabilities and had more modest expectations about benefits of e-prescribing.
Journal Article
Patients in intensive care units frequently experience adverse drug events involving intravenous medications (IV-ADEs), which are often preventable.
Journal Article
IV-ADEs substantially increased hospitalization costs and length of stay in ICUs at an academic hospital but not at a nonacademic hospital.
Journal Article
Investments in health research should lead to improvements in health and health care.
Journal Article
A panel of industry experts found the basic structure of two standards of e-prescribing systems to be technically adequate, but to enable benefits for patient care, improvements are needed in the standards' implementation.
Report
Analyzes the process of adopting clinical health information technology in hospitals and healthcare systems and derives policy strategies that could promote nationwide adoption.
Project
Advancing Clinical Decision Support is an intensive, multi-part project seeking address the major barriers that must be dealt with in order to enhance decisionmaking in clinical workflow. A particular focus of this project deals with meaningful use of electronic health record systems.
Journal Article
This article examines the reporting of CAHPS consumer experience data by sponsors.
Journal Article
It is important for ART programs to develop effective mechanisms for coordinating and referring clients to support service organizations.
Research Brief
This research brief describes the development and testing of a prototypical cancer-care quality monitoring system, the National Initiative for Cancer Care Quality (NICCQ), for breast cancer and colorectal cancer.
News Release
April 11, 2006 News Release: RAND Study Says Health Information Technology Can Improve Quality and Efficiency; More Evidence Needed About How to Put the Technology Into Wider Use.
RAND® is a registered trademark. Copyright © 1994-2013 RAND Corporation. Last Modified: September 15, 2010 Site Feedback »
