Health information technology in US emergency departments

Table 1 Characteristics of 68 emergency departments surveyed^a

Characteristic	N (%)	Median computerization score^b
Emergency medicine residency affiliation
Yes	51 (75%)	9
No	17 (25%)	8
Annual census (visit per year)
<10,000	0	n/a
10,000–19,999	0	n/a
20,000–29,999	1 (1%)	5
30,000–39,999	12 (18%)	8.5
40,000–49,999	12 (18%)	7.5
≥50,000	43 (63%)	9
US region
Northeast	30 (44%)	8
Midwest	15 (22%)	9
South	10 (15%)	9
West	13 (19%)	8

^aWe surveyed key informants at 69 US EDs, as part of the National Emergency Department Safety Study [4], with 68 (99%) of EDs surveyed responding
^bThe Computerization Score was simply a way for us to count the number of information technologies that had been acquired. We calculated the score by assigning one point for each acquired application listed in Table 2

ISSN: 1865-1380