Patient-centric care technology configurations: An exploratory analysis of patient engagement systems, telehealth, and remote patient monitoring in U.S. hospitals.

Background: Despite the growing demand for patient-centered care (PCC), there is a limited understanding of how hospitals configure and coordinate patient-facing technologies, such as Patient Engagement Systems (PES), telehealth, and Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM), on a national scale.

Purpose: This study seeks to identify existing technology configurations in U.S. hospitals and analyze the association between these configurations and various hospital performance measures.

Methodology/approach: Using cluster analysis on data from over 3,300 U.S. hospitals, we developed a taxonomy of three distinct technology configurations: Patient-Centric Pioneers, Selective Tech Adopters, and Traditional Care Providers. The differences in structural characteristics and performance measures among these groups are statistically analyzed.

Results: Hospitals in the Patient-Centric Pioneers group, which fully implement and effectively integrate PES, telehealth, and RPM, consistently outperform the others in terms of efficiency, clinical quality, and patient satisfaction. Selective Tech Adopters displayed the highest manpower productivity. However, they did not achieve better patient satisfaction than Traditional Care Providers with limited technologies.

Practice implications: Our research presents a comprehensive, robust empirical taxonomy of PCC technology configuration and technology complementarity literature, highlighting a strong correlation between a holistic technology strategy and improved hospital-level performance. These findings encourage hospital administrators and policymakers to support the strategic and integrated implementation of PES, telehealth, and RPM, even after the COVID-19 pandemic has passed.