Forecasting Content and Stage in a Nursing Home Information Technology Maturity Instrument Using a Delphi Method

Health information technology capabilities in some healthcare sectors, such as nursing homes, are not well understood because measures for information technology uptake have not been fully developed, tested, validated, or measured consistently. The paper provides a report of the development and testing of a new instrument measuring nursing home information technology maturity and stage of maturity. Methods incorporated a four round Delphi panel composed of 31 nursing home experts from across the nation who reported the highest levels of information technology sophistication in a separate national survey. Experts recommended 183 content items for 27 different content areas specifying the measure of information technology maturity. Additionally, experts ranked each of the 183 content items using an IT maturity instrument containing seven stages (stages 0–6) of information technology maturity. The majority of content items (40% (n = 74)) were associated with information technology maturity stage 4, corresponding to facilities with external connectivity capability. Over 11% of the content items were at the highest maturity stage (Stage 5 and 6). Content areas with content items at the highest stage of maturity are reflected in nursing homes that have technology available for residents or their representatives and used extensively in resident care. An instrument to assess nursing home IT maturity and stage of maturity has important implications for understanding health service delivery systems, regulatory efforts, patient safety and quality of care.