Hospitals Embrace IT
Nearly half of all community hospitals reported moderate or high use of health information technology (IT) in 2006, compared with 37% in 2005, according to recent survey results from the American Hospital Association. Hospitals also reported dramatic increases in the use of computerized alerts to prevent negative drug interactions; in 2006, 51% of hospitals were using real-time drug interaction alerts, up from 23% in 2005. Larger hospitals were more likely than smaller hospitals were to have heavy use of health IT, AHA said.