Leveraging EHR investments through medical device connectivity.

There are two primary factors for analyzing the cost of medical device integration: the total cost of ownership and gains in clinician efficiency. When calculating the long-term total cost of ownership, hospitals should consider the original acquisition cost, ongoing support costs, and also look at the incremental cost of adding a new device. In determining clinical efficiency, recent analyses show that medical device integration alleviates the initial negative impact of implementing an electronic health record and improves clinician efficiency by reducing clinicians' overall documentation activities.