Modeling return on investment for an electronic medical record system in Lilongwe, Malawi.

Objective: To model the financial effects of implementing a hospital-wide electronic medical record (EMR) system in a tertiary facility in Malawi.

Materials And Methods: We evaluated three areas of impact: length of stay, transcription time, and laboratory use. We collected data on expenditures in these categories under the paper-based (pre-EMR) system, and then estimated reductions in each category based on findings from EMR systems in the USA and backed by ambulatory data from low-income settings.