AHA: Hospital Acquisitions Improve Healthcare IT Infrastructure

Hospital acquisitions help improve healthcare IT infrastructure needed for data-driven, value-based care by increasing the scale at which the combined systems operate and invest, concluded a report by Charles River Associates sponsored by the American Hospital Association (AHA). The report provides three reasons why scale matters for data-driven, value-based care. First, there are significant fixed costs required to create the data warehouse and related IT infrastructure that combine clinical information with administrative revenue and cost data from various clinical environments and sites. Second, even after the data warehouse and IT infrastructure have been developed, there is a need for continuing effort and expenditure to ensure that all relevant information is consistently uploaded across the health system.