Usability improvements that could enhance patient safety are occurring in electronic health record systems, but not at an acceptable pace and not necessarily for the expected reasons or even the right ones, some industry gurus and researchers report.

Achieving the Promise of Health Information Technology: What Can Providers and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Do To Improve the Electronic Health Record User Experience?

Watch the live stream at http://www.help.senate.gov/hearings/achieving-the-promise-of-health-info...

SENATE HEARING LINEUP:

The increased adoption of electronic health records and other health IT has improved patient safety, according to an issue brief by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, Health IT Analytics reports (Bresnick, Health IT Analytics, 4/28).

Research published finds that the laboratory graphs displayed by many commercial EHRs present information in potentially dangerous ways.

The authors urged ONC to stringently oversee testing of the software - although FDA has said it won't regulate it.

The study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association examined the presentation of clinical lab test results in eight EHRs and found that most failed to graph the data in completely clear ways.

Hospital errors could be better avoided by improving the interoperability of medical devices, according to a survey of 526 registered nurses conducted by Harris Poll, FierceHealthIT reports (Dvorak, FierceHealthIT, 3/12).

In a Health Affairs blog post, a group of Republican senators write, "There is inconclusive evidence that the [HITECH ACT] has achieved its goals of increasing efficiency, reducing costs and improving the quality of care."

HIMSS NCA Lunch and Learn Webinar - "The Importance of User Experience in Health IT"

The first lHIMSS NCA unchtime webinar of the 2015 will take place on Wed, Feb 25, 2015 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EST and will focus how to understand what users want and how they want it, and design and build tools and apps that actually get used.

A coalition of 35 medical societies led by the American Medical Association sent a letter to National Coordinator for Health IT Karen DeSalvo calling for major changes to the meaningful use electronic health record certification program, The Hill reports.

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?

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has released the first draft test scenario for assessing the real-world usability of electronic health record systems under Stage 2 of the meaningful use program, Modern Healthcare reports.

The federal government continued to implement the HITECH Act, enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, during the third quarter of 2014. As implementation of HITECH's programs begin to wind down, more than $25 billion in incentive payments have been made to providers to spur electronic health record adoption, and more than 90% of eligible hospitals and 75% eligible professionals have adopted and are using EHRs as a result.

A coalition of health care organizations sent a letter to HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell recommending that the agency overhaul the meaningful use program with a focus on interoperability, Healthcare IT News reports.

See Dallas Hospital Issues 'Correction,' Says 'No Flaw' in EHR System

The American Medical Association released a framework outlining eight priorities for making electronic health records easier for providers to use, Modern Healthcare reports (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 9/16).

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.

Safety-Enhanced Design

ONC proposed a “safety-enhanced design” (SED) certification criterion for the Proposed Voluntary Edition that was unchanged as compared to the 2014 Edition certification criterion.

ONC did, however, solicit public comment regarding whether ONC should modify the certification criterion. Specifically, ONC requested comment regarding whether:

Medical experts told members of Congress that health IT solutions, such as electronic health records, are falling short in efforts to improve patient safety, Healthcare IT News reports (McCann, Healthcare IT News, 7/18).

Several simple steps -- such as implementing a decision-support tool and providing explanations of health insurance industry vocabulary -- could significantly improve the usability of HealthCare.gov, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the Los Angeles Times' "Science Now" reports.

The Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems is seeking clarity around CMS' proposed changes to the meaningful use program, Modern Healthcare reports.

AMDIS has tasked board member Michael Zaroukian with drafting formal comments to CMS' proposed rule (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 6/19).

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.