Physicians debate value of 'Most Wired Hospitals' survey

From the Digital Pathology blog: Physicians debate value of 'Most Wired Hospitals' survey:

In a lively panel session Wednesday at the 2008 Physician-Computer Connection Symposium, physician IT leaders discussed the importance of the "Most Wired Hospitals" list - which is based on the annual Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study - and disagreed about whether such rankings are useful or simply a marketing tool for hospitals.

"Just how dangerous is this report?" asked William Bria, MD, chairman of the AMDIS board of advisors and chief medical information officer at Shriners Hospitals for Children.

Bria speculated that hospital CEOs and boards of directors might mistakenly believe that the simple installation of healthcare IT would lift quality in a hospital.

"The most wired hospital isn't necessarily the best decision-making organization," he said.

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