The New York State Nursing Home Health Information Technology (HIT) Demonstration Project is a publicly subsidized initiative to implement comprehensive, point-of-care electronic medical records in 20 New York City nursing homes. Because of an innovative union--employer partnership, direct-care staff of the homes were heavily involved in the planning process. Union employees were assured upfront that no layoffs would result from HIT implementation, and training was a high priority in vendor selection. All participating homes successfully replaced paper records with electronic ones, and, after the intensive pre-implementation planning period, it took less than six months on average for facilities to make this transition. Despite this shared success, variation existed between homes regarding: 1) organizational aims for adapting HIT; 2) the technology's perceived or real effects; and 3) implementation of quality improvement efforts as a result of newly available data. performance health care system. The Fund carries out this mandate by supporting independent research on health care issues and making grants to improve health care practice and policy. Support for this research was provided by The Commonwealth Fund. The views presented here are those of the authors and not necessarily those of The Commonwealth Fund or its directors, officers, or staff.
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