Health care spending and use of information technology in OECD countries.

In 2003, the United States had fewer practicing physicians, practicing nurses, and acute care bed days per capita than the median country in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Nevertheless, U.S. health spending per capita was almost two and a half times the per capita health spending of the median OECD country. One proposal for both lowering health spending and improving quality is the adoption of health information technology (HIT). The United States lags as much as a dozen years behind other industrialized countries in HIT adoption--countries where national governments have played major roles in establishing the rule, and health insurers have paid most of the costs.