Assessing the relationship between hospital process digitalization and hospital quality – evidence from Germany
Hospital digitalization aims to enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and improve care quality. We explore the relationship between process digitalization and both process and outcome quality. Using data from the 2021 German DigitalRadar (DR) project, we combined it with two process (preoperative waiting time for osteosynthesis and hip replacement after femur fracture) and two outcome quality indicators (mortality ratio for pneumonia and ratio of new decubitus cases). We conducted univariate and multivariate regressions, measuring process digitalization using three models: (1) total DR-score, (2) sum of relevant DR-score sub-dimensions, and (3) separate sub-dimension scores. Process quality indicators showed insignificant associations. A higher DR-score was weakly associated with a lower pneumonia mortality ratio. However, higher digitalization was significantly linked to a higher decubitus ratio. The increased decubitus ratio may result from better diagnosis and reporting due to digitalization rather than lower care quality. Insignificant results may stem from the indicators' limitations in capturing quality variations and digitalization effects. Future research should focus on within-hospital effects using longitudinal data.
Vogel, J., A. Haering, D. Kuklinski and A. Geissler (2024), Assessing the relationship between hospital process digitalization and hospital quality – evidence from Germany. Journal of Medical Systems, 48, article number 85