Certification Commission Announces Newly Certified 08 EHR Products

Resources to help physicians choose EHR products available

CHICAGO – Sept. 30, 2008 – The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT®) today announced that 10 electronic health record (EHR) products for office-based physicians are the first certified under the new CCHIT Certified® 08 criteria.

Now in its third year, the certification program’s criteria and testing have been significantly updated to provide physicians with more assurance that certified products will meet their needs for functionality, interoperability and security. The Commission added 19 criteria to the 200 required in 2007. The new criteria focused on the ability to exchange patient information with other systems. This year optional ambulatory EHR certification was also available for Child Health and Cardiovascular Medicine.

“Two key new areas of interoperability are required to achieve 08 certification,” said Mark Leavitt, MD, PhD, chair, CCHIT. "First, ambulatory EHRs must be capable of advanced electronic prescribing functions so physicians can qualify for bonuses under Medicare’s new incentive program. Second, EHRs must be able to send and receive an electronic patient summary -- which we confirm using our Laika interoperability testing tool. These and other new criteria will ensure that certified health IT products help improve quality, safety and efficiency while protecting the privacy of health information.”

The 8 new fully CCHIT Certified 08 Ambulatory EHR products are:

In addition, 2 products were pre-market, conditionally CCHIT Certified 08 ambulatory EHR products. Pre-market, conditionally certified EHRs are new products that are fully certified once their operational use at a physician office site has been verified. They are:

The 08 certified products are listed on CCHIT’s Web site. For the first time, product listings now include voluntary EHR vendor disclosure of additional information about the company, its history and its user base.

Resources for physicians

The Physician’s Guide to CCHIT Certification has been updated to help physicians and practices understand the value of the latest 08 ambulatory EHR criteria. It is designed to explain the benefits of certification and what physicians need to consider when they are choosing EHRs. The updated guide is available at www.cchit.org and www.ehrdecisions.com. In addition, CCHIT is producing the first in a series of audio reports about certification, offering a database of incentive programs available to assist with EHR adoption, and providing other relevant information to help doctors make informed decisions about EHRs. The reports will be available for download beginning Sept. 30 at www.ehrdecisions.com.

Applications for 08 certification; launch of 09 HIE certification program

Applications will reopen for 08 certification of ambulatory EHRs with options for additional certification in Child Health and Cardiovascular Medicine on Oct. 1, and will be accepted on a continuous basis through March 31, 2009.
Also on Oct. 1, a certification program for health information exchanges (HIEs) will open for the first time. Recognizing that some HIEs are in an early stage of funding and business development, and wishing to lower the barriers to certification for these entities, the Commission has received a limited amount of funding from the Office of the National Coordinator, Health Information Technology, US Department of Health and Human Services,  to support certification fee reduction grants for nonprofit, operational HIEs with limited annual revenues. Information about this new 09 HIE program, including the criteria and test scripts, the HIE Certification Handbook and the applicant agreement, is available at www.cchit.org/certify/hie.

About CCHIT

The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT®) is an independent, nonprofit organization that has been recognized by the federal government as an official certification body for electronic health record products. Its mission is to accelerate the adoption of health information technology by creating a credible, sustainable product certification program. The certification requirements are based on widely accepted industry standards and involve the work of hundreds of expert volunteers and input from a variety of stakeholders throughout the health care industry. More information on CCHIT and CCHIT Certified® products is available at www.cchit.org.