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07/18/2006 Seattle, WA — The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) today announced that Practice Partner is CCHIT Certified for its product, Practice Partner Patient Records Version 9, and meets CCHIT ambulatory electronic health record (EHR) criteria for 2006. Ambulatory EHRs are designed for physician offices and clinics where most Americans get their healthcare. CCHIT is the recognized authority in the United States for certifying EHR products – an independent, nonprofit, public/private organization that sets the benchmark for healthcare information technology.
As a CCHIT Certified product, Practice Partner Patient Records has been tested and passed inspection of 100 percent of a comprehensive set of criteria for:
- functionality (ability to create and manage electronic records for all patients, as well as automating workflow in a physician’s office),
- interoperability (ability to receive and send electronic data to other entities such as laboratories), and
- security (ability to keep patients’ information safe).
The CCHIT Certified mark — a “seal of approval” for EHR products — provides the first consensus-based, consistent benchmark for ambulatory products. By looking to products with the CCHIT Certified seal, physicians and other providers can be assured they are making a reliable investment and insurers and other payers know the products meet expected industry standards.
“Physicians who purchase certified products have the assurance that they have been reviewed by a panel of judges, including practicing physicians, and that they are being evaluated against standards set by professionals in the field and successfully piloted with products from large and small companies,” said Mark Leavitt, M.D., Ph.D., chair, CCHIT. “The quality and safety of EHR products can now be measured using certification criteria that were developed specifically for that purpose.”
Andrew Ury, MD, founder and CEO of Practice Partner, added, “Becoming one of the first vendors to be CCHIT certified is truly an accomplishment, and one of which our employees and customers can be proud. Certification will help physicians make informed choices when selecting an EHR, and it validates those vendors who consistently strive to develop high quality, innovative solutions.”
The goals of CCHIT product certification are to reduce the risk of HIT investment by physicians and other providers; ensure interoperability of HIT products; enhance the availability of HIT adoption incentives from purchasers and payers; and protect the privacy of personal health information.
CCHIT’s certification compliance criteria and its design for a certification inspection process have been thoroughly researched, taking into account the state of the art of EHRs and available standards, and comparing certification processes in other industries and other countries. The inspection process is based on real-life medical scenarios designed to test products rigorously against the clinical needs of providers and the quality and safety needs of healthcare consumers and payers. One script, for example, recreates a scenario of an elderly man with poorly controlled diabetes, hypertension and other chronic conditions in order to test EHR functions such as potential adverse drug reactions, disease management and treatment plans.
CCHIT was founded in 2004 with support from three leading industry associations in healthcare information management and technology – The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and The National Alliance for Health Information Technology (Alliance). In September 2005, CCHIT was awarded a contract by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to develop, create prototypes for, and evaluate the certification criteria and inspection process for EHRs and the networks through which they interoperate. More information on CCHIT and a list of CCHIT Certified products is available at www.cchit.org.
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