About Health Transparency

From The Commonwealth Fund: Encouraged by federal incentive payments promoting the use of health information technology and calls for health care providers to better coordinate care, a growing number of U.S. hospitals are adopting electronic health record (EHR) systems. A new brief examines the experiences of nine hospitals that were early adopters and pioneering users of EHRs. It finds that the hospitals’ EHR systems facilitate patient safety and quality improvement through: use of checklists, alerts, and predictive tools; embedded clinical guidelines that promote standardized, evidence-based practices; electronic prescribing and test-ordering that reduces errors and redundancy; and discrete data fields that foster use of performance dashboards and compliance reports. 

Faster, more accurate communication and streamlined processes have led to improved patient flow, fewer duplicative tests, faster responses to patient inquiries, redeployment of transcription and claims staff, and more complete capture of charges.

You can also view comparative performance data for these and other hospitals on WhyNotTheBest.org.