The Joint Commission issued a sentinel event alert warning that while electronic health records and other health IT have the potential to improve care quality and safety, such technologies can pose inherent risks to patients, Modern Healthcare reports.
Click here for Update: The Final Rule for the 2015 edition certification has been released.
On page 191 of the 431 page document from ONC about the proposed changes to the Meaningful Use program for Stage 3, ONC begins to identify several significant changes to the Safety-enhanced Design (a.k.a.usability) testing requirements.
The Electronic Health Record Association has created a workgroup on health care delivery system reform, Clinical Innovation & Technology reports (Walsh, Clinical Innovation & Technology, 3/5).
On April 27, 2004, President George W. Bush proclaimed a bold goal for the nation: "Within the next 10 years, electronic health records will ensure that complete health care information is available for most Americans at the time and place of care, no matter where it originates. ... These electronic health records will be designed to share information privately and securely among and between health care providers when authorized by the patient."
More than 10 years later, most observers within the U.S. health care system and the health IT industry would agree that this goal of interoperability has not yet been achieved, and may not even be within clear sight. Although pockets of interoperability exist, the EHR systems used by inpatient, outpatient and ancillary providers generally cannot exchange patient data electronically, sometimes even among systems developed by the same EHR vendors. Although myriad interoperability standards exist on paper, real world connectivity between individual EHR systems still requires extensive custom interface development, attended by large and often prohibitive costs.
ONC is accepting public comments on Connecting Health and Care for the Nation: A Shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap Draft Version 1.0 (link is external). The comment period ends at 5 p.m. on April 3, 2015.
The draft Roadmap (link is external) proposes critical actions that need to be taken by both private and public stakeholders to advance the nation towards a more connected, interoperable health IT infrastructure and was drafted by ONC based on input from private and public stakeholders. The draft Roadmap (link is external) outlines the critical actions for different stakeholder groups necessary to help achieve an interoperable health IT ecosystem.
Lawmakers in Congress are circulating a revised draft bill intended to develop a regulatory framework for FDA's oversight of health IT, FierceHealthIT reports (Bowman, FierceHealthIT, 1/26).
The usability of the system is the probably most important factor in making an informed choice of which EHR to use for your practice. Most every bit of software says that it is easy to use, but how can you choose an EHR that is actually usable?
A coalition of health care groups sent a letter to House and Senate leaders urging them to ensure that ICD-10 implementation is not delayed again, Clinical Innovation & Technology reports (Walsh, Clinical Innovation & Technology, 11/18).
Our Chief Experience Officer, Bennett Lauber, has been invited to participate as a member of the Health IT Policy Committee’s Implementation, Usability, and Safety Workgroup.
The draft charge for the workgroup is:
The Health IT Implementation, Usability, and Safety Workgroup will provide input and make recommendations on policy issues and opportunities for improving how health IT is designed, certified, implemented and used to minimize safety risks and leverage data to support improvements in patient care and health outcomes.
FDA issued draft guidance saying that it considers medical device data systems to be safe and does not intend to regulate such tools, FierceHealthIT reports (Bowman, FierceHealthIT, 6/20).
Jacob Reider, deputy national coordinator and chief medical officer at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, said that the agency wants to make the meaningful use program more flexible and less focused on providers meeting a specific set of clinical quality measures, Modern Healthcare reports.
The American Hospital Association sent a letter Tuesday asking CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT to quickly finalize a proposed rule that extends the meaningful use timeline so that providers can take advantage of the added flexibility, EHR Intelligence reports (Murphy, EHR Intellig
The health care industry is divided over a proposed rule released earlier this week by CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT that would give providers an additional year to upgrade electronic health record systems to meet reporting requirements for Stage 2 of the Medicare meaningful use program, Modern Healthcare
User-centered design processes must be applied to each capability an EHR technology includes that is specified in the following certification criteria: § 170.315(a)(1) through (4), (8) through (10), and (18) and (b)(2) and (3).
CMS has released updated specifications for electronic clinical quality measures used by eligible hospitals in 2014 under meaningful use Stage 2, as well as a new tool for measure developers, Health Data Managemen
An international group of medical device regulators and stakeholders released a draft framework designed to harmonize regulation of software as a medical device, or SaMD, Health Data Management reports.
Earlier this week, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society sent a letter to CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner with recommendations on how the agency can maximize the number of successful attesters to Stage 2 of the meaningful use program this year, FierceEMR reports.
On Tuesday, March 27, 2014 the FDA published a proposed rule in the Federal Register that would update how the agency classifies medical devices, including mobile health technologies, Health Data Management reports (Slabodkin, Health Data Management, 3/25).
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 U.S. Access Board is in the process of jointly updating its Section 508 Standards for Electronic and Information Technology and its Telecommunications Act (Section 255) Accessibility Guidelines. On February 23, the Board submitted a proposed rule to update these standards and guidelines to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review. OMB has 90 days to review the rule under Executive Order 12866. Once cleared by OMB, the proposed rule will be published in the Federal Register and will be available for public comment for a specified period of time.
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