CCHIT sets tests for inpatient, ER e-health records

The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) approved final criteria today for certifying inpatient and emergency department electronic health records.It also published standards for a new category of certification — enterprise EHRs — to cover vendors that provide interoperable outpatient, inpatient and emergency room records.Dr. Mark Leavitt, CCHIT chairman, said the approvals mean outpatient and inpatient EHRs must now be able to exchange clinical in the Continuity of Care Document format, “making basic elements of health records, such as medications and allergies, interoperable and portable for the first time.”The first applications for products to be certified against the new criteria will be accepted Aug. 1-14.This concludes CCHIT’s work on its 2008 agenda for establishing health IT certification criteria. It published final outpatient, child health and cardiovascular medicine criteria May 20 and will take certification applications for those products July 1 - 14.CCHIT said it would set up a July 10 teleconference for vendors interested in the new certifications.