Two thousand primary care surveyed EHR users narrowed down an elite group of systems vendors across eighteen probing key performance indicators from a field of over 400 qualified healthcare software firms. As thousands of primary care practices still scramble to select and implement records systems, current adopters identify the firms that delivered on implementation success, productivity, outcomes, connectivity, meaningful use achievement and crucial stimulus fund requirements.

Topics for the Healthcare User Experience (#HCUX) tweet chat

#HCUX TweetChat for June 26, 2014

The first #HCUX (Healthcare User Experience) chat was hosted by Bennett Lauber (@uuAbility), Chief Experience Officer of The Usability People, LLC
The moderator for this chat has not yet been set.

Topics, so far, are:

Better clinical information system user experience can improve the quality of care. Discuss -

Can someone tell me why no one advertises #design positions in #hit? HIT needs consumer grade #UX

ONC: Staying Focused on EHR Usability
by Helen R. Pfister and Susan R. Ingargiola, Manatt Health Solutions, iHealthBeat, Thursday, February 20, 2014

We are based in the Washington DC Metro Area (Fairfax, VA ) and have been dealing with snow-days, snow delays, traffic etc. If you are anything like us, you are looking forward to HIMSS 2014. Not only for the informative sessions, meetings with vendors, networking with colleagues, but for THE WEATHER.

The Weather Channel says that for next week Orlando FL will be in the mid 70s. Nice.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) announced the launch of the Digital Privacy Notice Challenge, a new contest for health IT developers and designers to create an online notice of privacy practices (NPP) that is readable, understandable for patients, and seamlessly integrated into Web sites.

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.

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)

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.

NEW YORK, December 6, 2013 – WCH’ Service Bureau’s iSmart EHR has been tested and certified under the Drummond Group's Electronic Health Records Office of the National Coordinator Authorized Certification Body (ONC-ACB) program. This EHR software is compliant in accordance with the criteria adopted by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The importance of user-centered design in healthcare is truly life or death. Whether it's new medical devices or technologies; drug research, approval or delivery; patient forms or medical record sharing; emergency disaster planning or increasing the functionality of hospitals and everyday healthcare delivery, everyone is affected in some way by the intersection of usability in healthcare. There are many commonalities, yet each region of the world faces its own set of unique challenges.

CMS Changes Name of the EHR Incentive Programs (Meaningful Use) and Advancing Care Information to “Promoting Interoperability”

§170.315(g)(3) Safety-enhanced design

As providers of usability testing and user experience services we know that one of the major advantages of electronic health records (EHRs) are their potential to increase patient safety by preventing, detecting and aiding in the recovery from human errors. ONC has set certification standards for safety-enhanced design (SED), making patient safety a primary focus in the design of an EHR.

CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) have established standards and certification criteria that EHRs must use in order to successfully capture and calculate objectives for Stage 2 of Meaningful Use. These new standards and certification criteria now in effect.

HEALTHCARE: COLLABORATING FOR BETTER SYSTEMS

The Electronic Health Record Association (EHR Association), a non-profit association of more than 40 EHR companies, created an electronic health record (EHR) Developer Code of Conduct, which aims to encourage transparency and collaboration among EHR developers, as well as developers, providers, and industry stakeholders. The latest version of the code of conduct is available as a pdf here: http://bit.ly/13A1oLc

On the first page, the very first item (after a general statement) is Patient Safety.
The code says:

Here are the Top 10 Healthcare Usability Myths Debunked

Myth # 1 Clinicians are uncomfortable with technology and just need more training.

Fact: Current HIT systems often don’t fit the way end users think and work.

Myth # 2 Put it all on 1 screen to make it easier to use.

Fact: Developers need to understand workflows and tasks to know what information is needed.

Myth # 3 Whoever has the Most features wins.

Fact: Vet your current feature set. Less may be more.

A newly published survey of 1,200 physicians nationwide by the Watertown, Mass.-based athenahealth, which specializes in providing cloud-based based services for electronic health record (EHR), practice management, and care coordination, is revealing a mixed bag of opinions among doctors regarding how well electronic health records (EHRs) are working for them, with a range of views about the efficacy, cost-benefit analysis, and usability, of EHRs. Meanwhile, attitudes towards government involvement in healthcare have become more positive in the past year.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) maintains a FAQ database ( https://questions.cms.gov/ ) questions submitted for answers having to do with provider programs.

On July 23, 2013, the American Hospital Association and the American Medical Association sent a joint letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius asking for greater flexibility in the requirements of the meaningful use program, HealthLeaders Media reports (Commins, HealthLeaders Media, 7/25).

Black Book Rankings has released the "2013 State of Replacement EHR Market Study," the most recent in a series of Black Book™ strategic industry reports focused on the healthcare technology market. The study is a follow up assessment on the status of electronic health record users, all of which indicated deal-breaking dissatisfaction with the current vendor, termed the "Year of the Great EHR Switch" in a previous Black Book poll.