Does the physician order-entry system increase the revenue of a general hospital?

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the physician order-entry system (POE) could increase the outpatient and inpatient revenue of hospitals.

METHOD

We analyzed the inpatient and outpatient revenue data of all general hospitals (212) in South Korea obtained from the Korean National Health Insurance Corporation (KNHIC) during the period from 1996 to 1999 using the mixed model for repeated measure data.

RESULTS

Analysis of the 4-years' panel data showed that both outpatient and inpatient revenues increased significantly after POE introduction. The hospital characteristics significantly influencing inpatient revenue were the number of beds, number of physicians and the tertiary status of a hospital; whereas those for outpatient revenue were the number of beds, number of physicians, the private status of a hospital, the tertiary status of a hospital and the urban status of a hospital.

CONCLUSION

The revenues from both outpatients and inpatients were found to be increased after the introduction of the POE, while controlling for population size, competition, income, hospital location, hospital size, tertiary status and public status.