Impacts of eHealth on hospitals: an updated narrative review of systematic reviews.

Objective With the digital transformation of hospitals having unfolded globally, it is important to understand the impacts of eHealth on hospital practice. This study aims to update two previous narrative reviews of systematic reviews and assess: (1) what is the current state of eHealth impacts in hospitals? and (2) how have these impacts changed over time? Methods A narrative review of systematic reviews investigating the impact of eHealth (i.e. Electronic Medical Records (EMR), Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS), ePrescribing, and Computerised Provider Order Entry (CPOE)) published between 2 August 2017 and 31 December 2021 was conducted using PubMed and Medline. A meta-review was conducted to qualitatively compare the results of this review with two previous reviews, spanning from 2010 to 2021. Results Fourteen studies were included in the narrative review and 42 studies informed the meta-review. eHealth technologies were associated with a diverse array of outcomes with varying degrees of sentiment (positive, negative, neutral, mixed) reported between 2017 and 2021. In contrast to EMR, CDSS, and ePrescribing, the outcomes of CPOE were reported less frequently and less favourably although improvements to resource utilisation were evident. The meta-review identified mixed findings for the outcomes of CPOE, EMR, and ePrescribing and largely positive findings for CDSS. Conclusions The mixed impacts reported for EMR, CPOE, and ePrescribing and the largely positive impacts for CDSS should provide confidence to healthcare stakeholders of the potential of eHealth for hospitals. However, the presence of mixed and negative impacts demonstrate that realising the potential of eHealth is not guaranteed and dedicated efforts are needed to improve its outcomes. Future research should seek to identify the mechanisms that can be used to improve the impacts of eHealth.