Health information technology in U.S. hospitals: How much, how fast?

Hospitals are now faced with delivering value-based care (high quality patient care at a reduced cost) rather than volume-based care. To investigate the impact of IT on value-creation in health care, we identify and theorize how the extent of use and rate of growth in use for three HIT capabilities (Clinical Process Management, Patient Engagement, and Patient Transition) may independently and jointly affect cost and patient quality outcomes in the context of the U.S. health care industry. Our empirical data is based on multiple archival sources from 2008-2013, including data on implementation and use of HIT functionalities, hospital characteristics, quality of patient care outcomes, and cost of care outcomes. We identify measures for our constructs and propose analysis methods to test our model and hypotheses. We seek to contribute to our understanding of how portfolios of HIT capabilities and associated complementarities may contribute to the delivery of value-based care.