EHRs: Key HIT group certifies 10 EHRs

Planning any holiday-season electronic health record systems shopping? A key standards-setting health information technology nonprofit has some recommendations about where you may want to start.

The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology has certified 10 ambulatory EHR systems, the first EHRs to be certified under the group’s new criteria.

For 2008, CCHIT added 19 criteria to its earlier set of 200. The new criteria focus on EHR systems’ ability to exchange patient information with other systems, according to a statement from the CCHIT.

CCHIT says it updated the criteria to provide physicians with more assurances that certified products will meet their needs for functionality, interoperability, and security.

“Two key new areas of interoperability are required to achieve ’08 certification,” says Mark Leavitt, MD, chair of CCHIT. “First, ambulatory EHRs must be capable of advanced electronic prescribing functions so physicians can qualify for bonuses under Medicare’s new incentive program. Second, EHRs must be able to send and receive an electronic patient summary.”

The new fully certified ambulatory EHR systems are:

• Community Computer Service  Inc, MEDENT, version 18    

• eClinicalWorks, eClinicalWorks, version 8   

• Epic Systems Corporation, EpicCare Ambulatory EMR, version Spring 2008

• Greenway Medical Technologies Inc, PrimeSuite, version 2008

• McKesson Provider Technologies, Practice Partner, version 9.3

• MedLink International Inc, MedLink TotalOffice, version 3.1

• MedPlexus  Inc, MedPlexus EHR, version 9.2NextGen Healthcare Information Systems  Inc, NextGen EMR, version 5.5.27Pulse Systems, Pulse Patient Relationship Management, version 4.1

• VIP Medicine LLC, SmartClinic, version 16

The Chicago-based CCHIT says its mission is to spur the adoption of health care information technology by creating a certification process based on widely accepted industry standards.