Hospitals with the highest IT operating budgets

Software and information technology (IT) in healthcare have proven integral to improving patient care outcomes and reducing costs. The most prolific example of healthcare IT is the electronic health record (EHR), which enables secure patient data collection and sharing between providers. Other popular platforms include computerized physician order entry (CPOE), PACS, patient portals and telehealth.

Operating budgets forecast hospital department expenditures and revenues for the coming year, including IT operating expenses. As the year goes on, hospital leaders and supply chain managers may adjust purchasing and other spending to ensure the actual budget aligns with the original projection.

What is the average hospital IT budget?

In the Definitive Healthcare HospitalView product, IT operating budget is a proprietary calculation based on a facility’s size, services and data from the Medicare Cost Report, such as hospital operating expenses.

The average IT operating expense budget across approximately 4,660 hospitals is $7.7 million. This is about 3% of the average total operating expense of $238.2 million for these hospitals.

Below is a list of the top 25 hospitals with the highest estimated IT operating budgets. The figure used for calculations is a hospital’s most recent Medicare Cost Report, which can include both 2020 and 2021 data.