Background: This study demonstrates that digital maturity contributes to strengthened quality and safety performance outcomes in US hospitals. Advanced digital maturity is associated with more digitally enabled work environments with automated flow of data across information systems to enable clinicians and leaders to track quality and safety outcomes. This research illustrates that an advanced digitally enabled workforce is associated with strong safety leadership and culture and better patient health and safety outcomes. Objective: This study aimed to examine the relationship between digital maturity and quality and safety outcomes in US hospitals. Methods: The data sources were hospital safety letter grades as well as quality and safety scores on a continuous scale published by The Leapfrog Group. We used the digital maturity level (measured using the Electronic Medical Record Assessment Model [EMRAM]) of 1026 US hospitals. This was a cross-sectional, observational study. Logistic, linear, and Tweedie regression analyses were used to explore the relationships among The Leapfrog Group's Hospital Safety Grades, individual Leapfrog safety scores, and digital maturity levels classified as advanced or fully developed digital maturity (EMRAM levels 6 and 7) or underdeveloped maturity (EMRAM level 0). Digital maturity was a predictor while controlling for hospital characteristics including teaching status, urban or rural location, hospital size measured by number of beds, whether the hospital was a referral center, and type of hospital ownership as confounding variables. Hospitals were divided into the following 2 groups to compare safety and quality outcomes: hospitals that were digitally advanced and hospitals with underdeveloped digital maturity. Data from The Leapfrog Group's Hospital Safety Grades report published in spring 2019 were matched to the hospitals with completed EMRAM assessments in 2019. Hospital characteristics such as number of hospital beds were obtained from the CMS database. Results: The results revealed that the odds of achieving a higher Leapfrog Group Hospital Safety Grade was statistically significantly higher, by 3.25 times, for hospitals with advanced digital maturity (EMRAM maturity of 6 or 7; odds ratio 3.25, 95% CI 2.33-4.55). Conclusions: Hospitals with advanced digital maturity had statistically significantly reduced infection rates, reduced adverse events, and improved surgical safety outcomes. The study findings suggest a significant difference in quality and safety outcomes among hospitals with advanced digital maturity compared with hospitals with underdeveloped digital maturity.

Prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadian provincial health systems and governments did not sufficiently consider healthcare supply chain in their crisis preparedness plans, leading to an exposed and vulnerable healthcare system. There have been many opportunities to learn from past Canadian and global crises, which have emphasized the importance of healthcare supply chain resilience in providing essential care to patients; however, considerations of healthcare supply chain resilience remain a significant gap in preparedness planning. Illustrated through the Canadian response to COVID-19 pandemic, this article will explore how healthcare supply chain resilience should be a necessary consideration in any crisis preparedness plans. Further, without this consideration of healthcare supply chain resilience, it is the person (the patient and healthcare worker), and especially vulnerable populations, that are most put at risk in the event of a future crisis.

Patient experience is globally recognized as an important indicator of health system performance, linked to health system quality and improving patient outcomes. Post COVID-19, health systems have embraced digital health and advanced digital transformation efforts; however, the relationship between digital health and patient experience outcomes is not well-documented. Using HCAHPS hospital survey data to measure patient experience, and HIMSS EMRAM Maturity Model data to measure digital maturity, a cross-sectional design using multivariate analyses examined the impact of digital maturity on patient experience in US hospitals. Our analysis shows that advanced digital maturity in US hospitals is associated with stronger patient experience outcomes, particularly relative to communication with nurses, doctors, and communication about medicines and therapies. The findings suggest that there are significant differences in patient experience associated with teaching versus nonteaching hospitals, urban versus rural hospitals. As hospitals advance and progress digital transformation initiatives, evidence to inform how transformation efforts can engage and advance patient experience will contribute to health system performance well into the future.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a bright light on the fragility of Canada’s health supply chain, which has struggled to meet demands for both care delivery a

As health systems have struggled to keep up with the surge in demand for critical care and supplies, Canada’s health workforce has been significantly impacted