President Barack Obama is a staunch advocate of ‘paperless’ hospitals, where patient records, doctors’ orders, and other medical data are kept electronically rather than on paper.  The Congressional Budget Office and other critics of the concept suggest the merits of such technology may be overrated.  A recently published report of a study of ‘paperless’ hospitals in Texas, however, provides scientific documentation that lives truly are saved and costs are lowered when health information technology is used, with the most wired hospitals enjoying the better outcomes.

The report, found in the latest issue of the ‘Archives of Internal Medicine,’ says patients seeking treatment in hospitals where information technologies are used were 15% less likely to die during hospitalization than patients in hospitals that relied on paper records instead.  Dr. Neil Poe, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, says that 15% translates to 100,000 lives saved each year if all US hospitals computerized their data.  Poe was part of the research team headed by Dr. Ruben Amarasingham of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

Just because a hospital has computerized its data doesn’t mean all hospitals use the same software or technology or that all hospital personnel use it where its available.  The 41 urban Texas hospitals under study used four different types of technology.  One technology automated notes and records, another managed test results, the third computerized doctors’ directives for patient care, and the fourth type provided data that assisted doctors making treatment decisions.

Patient records evaluated for the study involved more than 160,000 patients, age 50 and older, who were hospitalized due to one of four different medical conditions – heart attack, heart bypass, heart failure, and pneumonia.  The research team determined that the best patient outcome – fewer deaths and fewer complications – was realized in hospitals that relied the heaviest on computerized medical data.

In hospitals where more doctors used computerized data, there were 16% fewer medical complications than in hospitals where less computerized data was used.  Medical complications can add dramatically to the cost of hospitalization.  Other findings include:

• Where automated patient notes and records were used, the chance of dying during hospitalization was reduced by 15%.
• Where doctors’ orders were computerized, heart attack patients’ risk of dying was lowered by 9% and the death risk to bypass patients was 55% lower.

Dr. David Bates, of Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, provided an editorial to accompany the published report.  In a telephone interview, he said he feels the findings of the report provide support for this aspect of the Obama Administration’s proposed healthcare reform program.