Quality ratings on CMS' Hospital Compare website lack the data variation needed to adequately help patients distinguish the quality and performance of different providers, according to a study published in the journal Health Services Research,

The HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT have launched a new initiative designed to help spur the use of health IT in emergency medical services, EHR Intelligence reports.
About the Initiative

An article supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) examines gaps in current electronic health record (EHR) functionality and needed enhancements to better support primary care. “Electronic health record functionality needed to better support primary care” recently appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

A new National Institute of Standards and Technology report offers recommendations on how electronic health record developers and ambulatory care centers can better integrate EHR systems into clinical workflow, FierceHealthIT reports.

Update: Now 23 Vendors...

Seventeen electronic health record developers have adopted an industry trade group's EHR Developer Code of Conduct, Modern Healthcare reports (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 3/10).

Preliminary recommendations for stage 3 of the “meaningful use” EHR Incentive Program were released by an Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) workgroup.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued guidance for eligible professionals, eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals that are unable to implement the 2014 Edition of Certified Electronic Health Record technology in time to successfully demonstrate meaningful use for the 2014 reporting year.

Visit the EHR Incentive Program webpage (http://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/EHRIncentiveProg... ) for the:

A new Black Book Rankings report names the top electronic health record vendors based on six client experience categories, Healthcare IT News reports.

The departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs "have not substantiated their claims" that implementing separate, interoperable electronic health record systems will be more affordable and quicker than their original plan to develop a joint EHR system for both agencies, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office, Health Data Manageme

The Next Crisis In American Healthcare: ICD-10 And The Problem With Medical Coding Error

Presented by
Dr. Elliot Familant, CTO and Founding Partner
Artificial Medical Intelligence (AMI)

Amazing Charts.com, LLC, a leading developer of Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems, today released the results of its first Amazing Charts User Survey, revealing new insights into what 652 physicians value most out of EHR technology and what practices perceive to be their greatest challenges and opportunities over the next five years. The first Amazing Charts User Survey was completed by Amazing Charts users on January 14, 2014.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has released certification and meaningful use requirements for electronic health records (EHRs). These require that EHR vendors include evidence of user-centered design and user test results in their certification submission. To be able to obtain the ONC certification (and meaningful use funding) EHR vendors must follow a formal User Centered Design (UCD) process and perform summative usability testing on specific areas of the product.

ONC today released the Safety Assurance Factors for EHR Resilience (SAFER) Guides. These guides are a suite of tools that include checklists and recommended practices designed to help health care providers and the organizations that support them assess and optimize the safety and safe use of EHRs.

Excerpts from HealthIT Buzz Blog post by Jacob Reider, MD / Acting National Coordinator for Health Information Technology

Date and time: Wednesday, January 15, 2014 3:00 pm
Eastern Standard Time (New York, GMT-05:00)

Join the Next eHealth Provider Webinar on January 14 to Learn How You Can Prepare for Stage 2

Are you participating in the EHR Incentive Programs? Have you completed two or more years of Stage 1? If so, it’s time to start preparing for Stage 2 and earn an incentive for 2014 participation.

Join CMS for the next eHealth provider webinar on Tuesday, January 14th from 12:00 – 1:30 p.m. ET to get ready for Stage 2.
What will you learn?

MedcityNews recently posted an article detailing the best EMR companies in the USA. Their webpage seems to lock up in several of our browsers, so we've cut/pasted it here so that you can read it without having technical issues...

Healthcare organizations and physicians are invariably looking to meet regulatory requirements in 2014 in order to be better equipped to deliver accountable care, maximize revenues and improve patient lives.

1. EHR Vendors will have more time to focus on their users.

a. To be able to obtain the ONC certification (and meaningful use funding for their customers) EHR vendors must follow a formal User Centered Design (UCD) process.
b. We recommend that EHR vendors follow ISO-9241-11 and show evidence that their design process is focused upon efficiency, effectiveness, and satisfaction.

2. EHR vendors will have time to perform many iterations of user testing.

Join ONC on Wednesday, December 18 for a webinar discussion regarding the proposed regulatory timeline for EHR certification criteria for 2015.

Web Conference Information

Conference Line: 888-469-1748
Meeting Number: 243-89

ONC subject matter experts will provide information about the new timeline and then will be available for a question-and-answer session following the presentation.

Agenda

Under the revised timeline, Stage 2 will be extended through 2016 and Stage 3 will begin in 2017 for those providers that have completed at least two years in Stage 2. The goal of this change is two-fold: first, to allow CMS and ONC to focus efforts on the successful implementation of the enhanced patient engagement, interoperability and health information exchange requirements in Stage 2; and second, to utilize data from Stage 2 participation to inform policy decisions for Stage 3.