Gerontological Nursing Interventions Research Center (GNIRC)

Title: Measuring IT Sophistication in Nursing Homes

Principal Investigator: Gregory Alexander, PhD, RN

Study Site: University of Missouri-Columbia

Abstract

Information Technology (IT) development has the potential to improve the safety, quality, and efficiency of health care in the United States. In acute care environments, sophisticated computers have been shown to assist in diagnosis, improve clinical decision making, enhance adherence to clinical guidelines, and provide increased focus on patients with chronic diseases. Little is known about the effects of IT sophistication in nursing homes. IT sophistication is the level of diversity and maturity in technological tools and software used to support resident care, clinical support, and administration. This study focuses on IT sophistication in nursing homes.  In this study, IT sophistication profiles from a sample of nursing homes will be used to stratify facilities along the three clinical domains of resident care, clinical support, and administration. The purpose of this descriptive exploratory cross sectional study is to investigate the level of IT sophistication used to support resident care, clinical support, and administrative processes. This study will take place using a stratified random sample of 120 facilities selected using strata based on regional status, bedsize, and ownership. Methods include a written IT sophistication instrument previously tested in acute care settings that has been adapted to the nursing home environment. The development of IT sophistication profiles across a sample of nursing homes will establish a framework to develop and investigate performance measures between facilities that have varying degrees of technological instruments, IT functionality, and integration in each clinical domain resident care, clinical support, and administration.