Is "Self-Certification" the best choice for your health system?

In February of 2009, the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) allocated $19 billion in funding for hospitals and clinics that make “meaningful use” of certified Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems. The conventional approach to certification for eligible hospitals and health systems is to purchase a certified Electronic Health Record (EHR) system, implement it and then use it in a production setting to satisfy the meaningful Use (MU) criteria.

But what about those organizations that are not ready to take on the substantial costs associated with upgrading to a newly certified EHR? The ONC has addressed this problem as follows:


Self-developed Complete EHRs and EHR Modules could include brand new Complete EHRs or EHR modules developed by a health care provider or their contractor.  It could also include a previously purchased complete EHR or EHR Module which is subsequently modified by the health care provider or their contractor and where such modifications are made to capabilities addressed by certification criteria adopted by the Secretary.


To read more about this more cost effective and less disruptive option and see how DHIT can help your organization achieve certification requirements, read our White Paper on the subject at http://www.dynamichealthit.com/Docs/Self_Cert%20White%20Paper.pdf.

Please contact us with any questions at (504) 309-9103 or info@dynamichealthit.com.

EMR Certification Confusion - Authorized Testing and Certification Bodies

Source of Confusion
It seems a common source of confusion around the meaningful use certification requirements from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) involves the position of the industry's previous certifying body, CCHIT. Many of the questions and much of the online literature published prior to the official release of ONC's certification requirements indicated that using CCHIT for certification would not satisfy the ONC's meaningful use certification standards. Unfortunately, a quick Google search on the subject still yields numerous top results presenting this stance.

Clarification
Two Important Points:

1. Despite those well-intentioned speculations, it's important to note that as of September 3, 2010, the ONC officially authorized 2 organizations: CCHIT and Drummond Group as the only two "ONC-Authorized Testing and Certification Bodies (ATCBs). On Sepember 24, a third organization - InfoGard Laboratories - was added as an ATCB. (Reference: http://healthit.hhs.gov/portal/server.pt?open=512&mode=2&objID=3120).
2. EMRs with previous CCHIT certification will not be "grandfathered" in to ONC certification. Vendors in this category will need to re-certify with ONC standards to meet the government's "meaningful use" requirements. Naturally, this re-certification effort will likely not be revolutionary for CCHIT-certified vendors.

At Dynamic Health IT, we can drive the interoperability portion of your ONC certification. We have expertise with the criteria and certification methodology used by CCHIT, Drummond, and InfoGard. We're proficient in the specific testing practices and will partner with your organization throughout the entire certification process so that you can focus on your company's core capabilities.

If you want to talk more about the certification process or are interested in our services, give us a call at (504) 309-9103 or email at info@dynamichealthit.com.

First Post

Welcome to the new Dynamic Health IT blog. We’ll be blogging about the services we offer, our experiences and insights, industry news, and anything else related to healthcare IT. Please let us know if there’s anything you would be interested in hearing about.