Project Details -
Completed
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Grant NumberR01 HS015009
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Funding Mechanism(s)
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AHRQ Funded Amount$1,304,478
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Principal Investigator(s)
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Organization
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LocationIowa CityIowa
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Project Dates09/01/2004 - 08/31/2008
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Care Setting
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Population
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Type of Care
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Health Care Theme
The national discussion of quality and patient safety has only recently begun to identify and understand the unique quality and patient safety issues facing rural hospitals, as opposed to those of their much larger and far more complex, urban counterparts. Serious questions arise about whether commonly proposed health information technology (health IT) interventions for quality and patient safety issues actually make sense in rural hospitals. Moreover, very few rural hospitals currently have the necessary health IT capacities because of expense, limited in-house health IT expertise, and mismatches among health IT applications. This project was designed to meet the special needs of rural hospitals for assistance with planning health IT enhancements to address patient's safety and health care quality concerns. This project was developed in response to RFA HS-04-012 which states that "AHRQ is specifically interested in...applications that explore the unique barriers faced by rural and small community providers in adopting HIT and opportunities for overcoming these barriers" and "Research areas that are of particular interest to AHRQ include: development and evaluation of toolkits...that can be used by...decision-makers to help them understand the value of health IT and assist them to make health IT purchasing and implementation decisions." First, we documented the patient safety and health care quality challenges unique to rural hospitals. Second, explored the current health IT capacity in rural hospitals, the potential use of health IT by rural hospitals to address their unique patient safety and health care quality issues, and the unique barriers faced by rural hospitals in adopting health IT. Third, measured value derived from health IT in rural hospitals and identified which health IT solutions for enhancing patient safety and health care quality have the greatest potential in terms of generating a positive return on investment. Fourth, created decision-making health IT toolkits to address barriers and provide solutions that are appropriate for rural hospitals. Once the toolkits were developed, we made them available to rural hospital decision-makers. The toolkits facilitate rural hospitals' ability to utilize current and emerging evidence to guide health IT investment and implementation decisions that fit their particular health care environment.