Lou E. Pelton

Healthcare knowledge management systems can mitigate hospitals’ operational inefficiency. As a healthcare information technology, the electronic health record (EHR) receives much attention from medical institutions due to its considerable impact on operational cost performance. This paper focuses on EHR systems to address operational inefficiency by which patients pay more for health care services, and many U.S. hospitals are filing for bankruptcy. From the theoretical perspective of the practice-based view, this paper introduces a path to implement EHR systems for improving cost performance. The empirical investigation is archival data of 200 hospitals collected from the U.S. healthcare agencies. Findings contribute to prior work by hypothesizing moderating and mediating roles in EHR systems implementation. This paper introduces absorptive capacity and monitoring mechanisms as enablers of implementing EHR systems. The results showed that hospital monitoring strengthens the relationship between absorptive capacity and electronic health record systems implementation, which results in better operational cost performance. Theoretically, this study supports the long-term potential benefits of EHR adoption, and its findings are consistent with optimizing efficiency through data standardization and interoperability. From a practical perspective, this study supports hospitals' investments in evolving healthcare information technology systems through the development of a knowledge-based system employing EHR, particularly when hospitals are merging or need a financial strategic plan to control expenses.

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are designed as a real-time digital record to streamline distinctive and valuable patient information across multiple stakeholders in the healthcare delivery channel. The stakeholders include hospitals, healthcare providers and patients, as well as a myriad of third-party providers (i.e., insurance companies, Medicare). Academicians, practitioners and public policy makers are grappling with uneven experiences and empirical findings regarding the relationship between technology-enabled information sharing and the ensuing quality of healthcare outcomes. The most significant government-mandated technology is the implementation and adoption of EHR. The present research examines EHR through the lens of Resource Advantage Theory –– to empirically assess how partial and comprehensive implementation levels of EHR adoption influence quality management and financial performance of hospitals. Based on archival data attained from 210 hospitals in the state of Texas, the results indicate positive relationships between EHR and the quality of care. While it is generally recognized that EHR and quality management affect a hospital’s performance, this research investigates the moderating effect that EHR has on quality management and a hospital’s performance. These findings provide hospital administrators, practitioners, and third-party payers with an integrative and parsimonious model to understand the impact of partial and comprehensive levels of EHR implementation on the relationship of healthcare quality and hospital performance.

(2020). Measurement and metrics in omnichannel retailing. Journal of Marketing Channels: Vol. 26, Retail Performance Measures, Metrics, and Models, pp. 87-88.