Factors Behind Low Investment in IT in Health Care
The healthcare sector lags behind other information-intensive industries, such as the banking sector in the implementation of information technology. The leading challenge in healthcare concerning HIT is the high cost of implementation. It is estimated that the cost of implementing HIT in physician practices is between $65,000 and $100,000, while in hospitals it can be as high as $2 million (Knickman & Kovner, 2018). Health care organizations’ leaders and policymakers are discouraged by the high cost of investing in technology to support their work. Besides the high cost, critical data is inadequate to support the potential of HIT in terms of returns on investment. With a lack of evidence of efficiency, health care organizations remain reluctant to pay the high cost of implementation. Other possible factors behind the low implementation of HIT include variance in quality and value of IT in health care, lack of standardization across health care providers, and potential for user errors that might jeopardize patient safety.
Responsibility in Paying for HIT
Investment in HIT should be a shared responsibility, depending on the type of health organization. The government has the leading responsibility to subsidize care in all health care organizations, both in the public and private sector. Besides, organizational leaders have an obligation of ensuring safety and quality of care provided to their patients (Agha, 2014). Therefore, they should support the investment in HIT and pay part of the cost to improve services and increase their earnings from patient care. Other stakeholders, including patients and insurers, should cater for part of the investment through their payment for services in healthcare organizations. Therefore, every stakeholder in healthcare should contribute to the implementation of HIT.
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