Labor Markets and Technological Change: Evidence from Electronic Health Records

Abstract

Technology adoption in health care has the potential to improve patient outcomes and, in some cases, decrease costs. However, new technologies can be burdensome for physicians to keep up with and lead to frustration. I add to our understanding of how new technology can affect those who use it by investigating changes in physician behavior as a result of a major technology shift in U.S. hospitals, electronic health records (EHRs). I treat EHR implementation in hospitals as an exogenous treatment to physicians within the hospital (hospitalists), and estimate average group time treatment effects on various labor market outcomes. I find that hospitalists are more likely to retire, and more likely to shift work to an outpatient setting due to EHRs. However, those who continue using EHRs in the hospital see more patients due to the technology.