Advanced EHR Cuts Hospital Costs By 10% Per Admission

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

According to a recent study, when hospitals rely on advanced electronic health records they can save up to 10 percent per patient admission.

Researchers from the Medical University of South Carolina have found that hospitals using advanced EHR systems can save a significant amount per patient admission. Their study, published in the American Journal of Managed Care, found the use of advanced electronic health records cut per-patient costs by nearly 10 percent.

EHR Intelligence reports researchers used data from more than five million patient cases at 550 hospitals to conduct the study. Of these hospitals, 18.9 percent had EHR systems that qualified as advanced, defined as one that met Meaningful Use criteria.

The study found that in control hospitals, or those without advanced systems, the mean cost per patient admission was $7,938. The mean for those that did have advanced EHRs was $7,207. This shows a savings of $730 per patient when using an advanced EHR. That works out to a 9.6 percent savings on every patient admission.

“Hospitals that use advanced EHRs report lower costs per patient admission than hospitals that do not use advanced EHRs. These cost savings will benefit many third-party payers, hospitals, and patients, and incentives such as those provided through the HITECH Act to promote EHR adoption and use will benefit hospitals,” write the study’s authors.

“Since many previous studies have shown that EHRs can improve the safety and quality of care in hospitals, the projected cost savings in this study provides additional motivation and builds the business case for hospitals to make the large investment in adopting and maintaining an EHR system.”