Survey Identifies Gaps in IT Use for Adverse Event Reporting

​Despite an increased emphasis on ensuring that adverse events are properly reported and acted on, nursing homes only rarely use health information technology (IT) to accomplish this reporting and face many more barriers than facilitators to doing so, according to survey results published online December 22, 2012, by Geriatric Nursing. The study, based on survey responses from 399 nursing home administrators from throughout the country, found that while most had reported mandated events to state agencies by phone call, only 11% had used more technologically advanced methods such as e-mail or secure websites. While nearly 60% of respondents noted that they had technology support for some parts of the event reporting process (e.g., data collection, data analysis), only 15% had systems that allowed unit staff to enter adverse event data.