Assessing the Cost of Electronic Health Records: A Review of Cost Indicators

We systematically reviewed PubMed and EBSCO business, looking for cost indicators of electronic health record (EHR) implementations and their associated benefit indicators. We provide a set of the most common cost and benefit (CB) indicators used in the EHR literature, as well as an overall estimate of the CB related to EHR implementation. Overall, CB evaluation of EHR implementation showed a rapid capital-recovering process. On average, the annual benefits were 76.5% of the first-year costs and 308.6% of the annual costs. However, the initial investments were not recovered in a few studied implementations. Distinctions in reporting fixed and variable costs are suggested. A literature review of 24 articles, identified from a pool of 92 articles, on electronic health records (EHRs) was conducted. The articles were found in PubMed and EBSCO Business databases. The review focused on cost indicators and associated benefits, a set of the most common cost and benefit indicators used in the EHR literature, as well as an overall estimate of the cost–benefit related to EHR implementation. Overall, cost–benefit evaluation of EHR implementation showed a rapid capital recovering process. On average, the annual benefits cost savings were 76.5% of the first-year costs, and 308.6% of the annual costs.