Electronic Health Records Adoption By European Hospitals: A Configurational Analsyis

Abstract

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are considered critical for the delivery of high quality healthcare, saving time, money and lives. As well, their effects on hospitals' processes depend on the patterns of functional capabilities that are used by clinicians and allied healthcare professionals. However, our knowledge of patterns of EHR functional capabilities is limited and most available studies have been conducted within the confines of the United States. Based on data from a European Union region-wide survey, we used factor analysis and a combination of hierarchical and non-hierarchical clustering algorithms followed by discriminant analysis to identify patterns of European Acute Care public hospitals based on clinical functional capabilities made available to clinicians. We empirically derive a 3-cluster solution, composed of three well-separated groups, from a data set of 1056 European Acute Care Hospitals. Statistically, differences in hospitals’ characteristics were found among clusters. From a pract...