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Beyond Adoption: Does Meaningful Use of EHR Improve Quality of Care?

Electronic health record (EHR) system holds great promise in transforming healthcare. Existing empirical literature typically focused on its adoption, and found mixed evidence on whether EHR improves care. The federal initiative for meaningful use (MU) of EHR aims to maximize the potential of quality improvement, yet there is little empirical study on the impact of the initiative and, more broadly, the relation between MU and quality of care. Leveraging features of the Medicare EHR Incentive Program for exogenous variations, we examine the impact of MU on healthcare quality. We found evidence that MU significantly improves quality of care. More importantly, this effect is greater in historically disadvantaged hospitals such as small, non-teaching, or rural hospitals. These findings contribute not only to the literature on Health IT, but also the broader literature of IT adoption and the business impacts of IT as well.