Costs and Benefits of Health Information Technology

This evidence report reviewed 256 studies of health information technology implementation in order to assess the evidence base regarding benefits and costs of health information technology (HIT) systems to isolate the value of discrete HIT. All cost-benefit analyses predicted substantial savings from EHR (and health care information exchange and interoperability) implementation: the quantifiable benefits are projected to outweigh the investment costs. However, the predicted time needed to break even varied from three to as many as 13 years.

HIT has the potential to enable a dramatic transformation in the delivery of health care, making it safer, more effective, and more efficient. Some organizations have already realized major gains through the implementation of multifunctional, interoperable HIT systems built around an EHR. However, widespread implementation of HIT has been limited by a lack of generalizable knowledge about what types of HIT and implementation methods will improve care and manage costs for specific health organizations. The reporting of HIT development and implementation requires fuller descriptions of both the intervention and the organizational/economic environment in which it is implemented.