CCHIT issues 2008 inpatient, ED, enterprise EHR criteria
The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) has published its approved final criteria for certification of inpatient and emergency department (ED) EHR products, as well as an enterprise EHR certification for vendors that provide ambulatory, inpatient and ED EHRs that are interoperable.

The Commission said that the first round of applications for certification under the new 2008 criteria will be accepted Aug. 1-14, with certified products expected to be announced in November. The final certification criteria, test scripts and associated program policy documents are published on the Commission's website.

A town call teleconference for vendors interested in certification, especially those offering ED EHRs or seeking enterprise certification, is scheduled for July 10 to introduce the new programs.

The publication of the materials concludes the commission’s development work on EHR certification for the CCHIT Certified 2008 program. The Commission published the final ambulatory, child health and cardiovascular medicine criteria May 20, and will be accepting certification applications in those domains from July 1-14.

“We believe 08 certification adds value for all stakeholders as well as embracing new domains of care,” said Mark Leavitt, MD, PhD, chair of the CCHIT. “Ambulatory and inpatient EHRs must now be able to send and receive clinical summaries in the CCD format – making basic elements of health records, such as medications and allergies, interoperable and portable for the first time. And with new health IT adoption incentive programs – such as the CMS EHR demonstration project—now being launched, vendors serious about the EHR market will want to attain 08 certification.”
Trimed Popup
Trimed Popup