A hospital's adoption of information technology is associated with altered risks of hospital-acquired venous thromboembolism

Abstract

The objective was to examine the relationship between hospital adoption of information technology (IT) and hospital-acquired venous thromboembolism (VTE). Inpatients aged 65 years and older who were discharged from hospitals in California, Florida, and New York were analyzed. A cross-sectional study design was used to perform secondary data analyses. The association between implementing IT applications (ie, electronic clinical documentation, electronic lab orders, medication orders written electronically) in the patients' hospitals (independent variables) and hospital-acquired VTE (the dependent variable) were studied using a hierarchical logistic model. Electronic clinical documentation was associated with lower odds of hospital-acquired VTE (odds ratio [OR] = 0.835, P < .001). An even larger reduction in the odds was found among patients of hospitals that implemented electronic lab orders (OR = 0.627, P < .001). However, the implementation of electronic medication orders did not show such an association.