The impact of information technology on small, medium, and large hospitals: Quality, safety, and financial metrics

This study focuses on the role of information technologies in healthcare, and investigates the relationship of IT sophistication to patient safety, healthcare quality, and financial performance in Texas acute care hospitals. A value/supply chain perspective guides the development of a general model that integrates hospitals' IT sophistication with their patient and financial outcomes. From the model emerge hypotheses that are tested using the structural equation modeling approach, taking into account differences in outcomes across small, medium, and large hospitals. Our testing and comparisons give insight into the dynamics of health information technology and provide specific direction for practitioners and future research.