posted Jul 6, 2011, 3:01 PM by John Little
On
June 10, the DHHS’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health
Information Technology (ONC) issued the following clarifications with
regard to EHR certification:- A combination of certified EHR Modules can be used to meet the definition of Certified EHR Technology.
- Combining
certified EHR Modules or certified EHR Modules with a certified
Complete EHR (or even two certified Complete EHRs) will not invalidate
the certification assigned to the EHR technologies.
- ONC-Authorized
Testing and Certification Bodies (ONC-ATCBs) are not required to
examine the compatibility of two or more EHR Modules with each other.
- The
ONC-ATCBs do not favor large developers, and such favoritism is
precluded by the international standards to which ONC-ATCBs must adhere.
- Certification
doesn’t require that an EHR technology designed by one EHR developer
make its data accessible or “portable” to another EHR technology
designed by a different developer.
- In
most cases, an eligible professional or eligible hospital is not
limited to demonstrating meaningful use to the exact way in which the
Complete EHR or EHR Module was tested and certified. As long as an
eligible professional or eligible hospital uses the certified Complete
EHR or certified EHR Module's capabilities and, where applicable, the
associated standard(s) and implementation specifications that correlate
with the respective meaningful use objective and measure, they can
successfully demonstrate meaningful use even if their exact method
differs from the way in which the Complete EHR or EHR Module was tested
and certified.
- Certifications
do not “expire” every two years. A certification represents a
“snapshot.” It indicates that EHR technology has met specific
certification criteria at a fixed point in time. In other words, an EHR
technology would not “lose its certification” after a given time period.
If, however, certification requirements change (e.g., new and/or
revised certification criteria are adopted), the snapshot the
certification represents would no longer accurately reflect that the EHR
technology meets the changed requirements. (link)
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