Electronic health records (EHRs) produce savings for hospitals by reducing the average length of patient staysbut only in facilities meeting the highest federal standards for implementing the technology, according to new research from Case Western Reserve University.The findings are significant for a health-care industry with growing levels of spendingnow roughly 18 percent of the nations gross domestic product.In hospitals meeting the federal governments measure of meaningful use of electronic health records, patients are discharged nearly four hours earlierapproximately a 3 percent reduction of the average five-day hospital stay.For sicker patients, the benefit was even greater: Those with complex or multiple chronic conditions see up to an additional 0.5 percent reduction in their hospital stays.Whats more, researchers found that these shortened stays did not come with an increase in re-admissions. With prolonged patient stays costing hospitals an average of $600 a day, the use of electronic records could help contain growing costs, especially amid a trend of reduced reimbursements from insurance companies and entitlement programs.Longer hospitals stays cost more money for all involved, said Manoj Malhotra, dean of the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve and co-author of the research.Electronic health records, when meaningfully implemented help patients go home sooner, reducing their exposure to germs in the hospital and likelihood of having to come back,” he said.Hospitals that did not fully engage in meaningful use of electronic records showed no significant reductions in length of patient stays, according to the study, which was published in the Journal of Operations Management.Any efficiencies, even small improvements, can produce significant savings when adopted in a large health-care systemand are certainly preferable to the alternative, said Malhotra, who is also the Albert J. Weatherhead, III Professor of Management at the university.

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