Impact of health information technology optimization on clinical quality performance in health centers: A national cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Delivery of preventive care and chronic disease management are key components of a high functioning primary care practice. Health Centers (HCs) funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) have been delivering affordable and accessible primary health care to patients in underserved communities for over fifty years. This study examines the association between health center organization’s health information technology (IT) optimization and clinical quality performance. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Using 2016 Uniform Data System (UDS) data, we performed bivariate and multivariate analyses to study the association of Meaningful Use (MU) attestation as a proxy for health IT optimization, patient centered medical home (PCMH) recognition status, and practice size on performance of twelve electronically specified clinical quality measures (eCQMs). Bivariate analysis demonstrated performance of eleven out of the twelve preventive and chronic care eCQMs was higher among HCs attesting to MU Stage 2 or above. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that Stage 2 MU or above, PCMH status, and larger practice size were positively associated with performance on cancer screening, smoking cessation counseling and pediatric weight assessment and counseling eCQMs. CONCLUSIONS: Organizational advancement in MU stages has led to improved quality of care that augments HCs patient care capacity for disease prevention, health promotion, and chronic care management. However, rapid technological advancement in health care acts as a potential source of disparity, as considerable resources needed to optimize the electronic health record (EHR) and to undertake PCMH transformation are found more commonly among larger HCs practices. Smaller practices may lack the financial, human and educational assets to implement and to maintain EHR technology. Accordingly, targeted approaches to support small HCs practices in leveraging economies of scale for health IT optimization, clinical decision support, and clinical workflow enhancements are critical for practices to thrive in the dynamic value-based payment environment.