Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

'Paperless' Hospitals Found to Be Safer

by Tim Stevens on January 27, 2009 at 04:30 PM

There's a constant and ongoing struggle to get hospitals -- and the health industry as a whole -- to modernize and go digital. Many have resisted, thinking that digital records will result in the same leaks of personal information we've seen in the repeated hackings of Monster.com. However, a new study should give those digital supporters a little more ammunition. According to that study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, you are 15 percent less likely to die in an all-digital hospital than in one still relying on paper.

The study tracked 41 hospitals in Texas and shows that 100,000 lives could be saved every year if all hospitals upgraded, thanks to a 16 percent reduction in complications during hospital stays. Hopefully, these findings serve as an indication that such upgrades will get pushed through. But in the interim, if you have your choice, you might just want to head to the hospital that has more LCD monitors than clip boards. [From: Reuters]

Related Links:

Tags: digital health records, DigitalHealthRecords, health, health care, health records, HealthCare, HealthRecords, hospital, hospitals

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular