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Jan 27, 2009 | 1
Don't underestimate the value of good bookkeeping. A new study says that your chance of dying and suffering complications is lower in hospitals and clinics that computerize patient charts and drug orders.
There were 15 percent fewer deaths, and patients treated for heart attacks, congestive heart failure or pneumonia or who had coronary bypass surgery were 16 percent less likely to suffer complications in hospitals that kept records in a centralized computer system, according to research published in this week's Archives of Internal Medicine. The findings were based on the records of 167,233 patients aged 50 and older at 72 hospitals in Texas and on doctor ratings of the information technology at those facilities.
The results held even after researchers (from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the University of Maryland) controlled for the seriousness of conditions and whether a hospital was an academic center or a cash-strapped "safety-net" facility for the indigent.
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