Analyzing Change in Nursing Home Information Technology Sophistication A 2-Year Survey

Nursing home (NH) health information technology (IT) is becoming more prevalent across the country. Currently, a national sample of NHs is being surveyed for 3 consecutive years to determine trends in NH IT sophistication (e. g., measures of IT capabilities, extent of IT use, IT integration with internal and external stakeholders). IT sophistication is measured in resident care, clinical support, and administrative activities. The current article provides details of the differences in NH IT sophistication reported by administrators completing Year 1 and Year 2 surveys. IT in clinical support (i. e., laboratory, pharmacy, and radiology) had the greatest differences. This difference is expected because these areas typically require external contracts, making it difficult to fit IT with existing workflows, which is important for sustained adoption.