Survey: Quality improvement now a key part of HIT purchasing decisions

Maybe we finally have reached that tipping point--the one so many prognosticators have said we've reached in health IT throughout the last decade. A new study from IT industry group CompTIA concludes that a majority of healthcare providers now see the medical benefits of IT. "[A]mong the study's more significant findings is that both the healthcare and healthcare IT industries expect emerging technologies, such as electronic medical records, to better serve patients," CompTIA research VP Tim Herbert says in a written statement. 

Among the providers already using EMRs, 82 percent say the promise of better patient care was a major factor in their decision to switch to electronic records, just about equal to those primarily looking for efficiency gains. On the vendor side, 67 percent of IT firms surveyed said that care improvements figured heavily in the purchasing decisions of their customers.

Access to the full report is restricted to CompTIA members, but to learn more:
- click on this CompTIA press release [1]

Related Articles:
The message is trickling through: IT and quality must be part of reform [2]
Study: Health IT will not meet goals, does not improve care [3]
EHRs boost quality, raise costs at community clinics [4]