Locally Developed Software Complies with Updated U.S. Certification Criteria
Ochsner Health System is one of only three organizations in the U.S. to receive national certification for its non-commercial Electronic Health Records (EHR), which enables Ochsner physicians to better coordinate patient care. The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT®) announced that the Ochsner Clinical Workstation (OCW) is CCHIT Certified® and meets the Commission’s ambulatory Electronic Health Records criteria for 2007. CCHIT is the Recognized Certification Body in the U.S. for health information technology products.
“Ochsner’s CCHIT certification means that our patients’ medical records are safe, secure, and available wherever they seek our care,” explains Dr. Lynn Witherspoon, Chief Information Officer at Ochsner. “Ochsner Clinical Workstation optimizes our patients experience from preventative care to diagnosis to treatment. By providing Ochsner’s care providers with access to their patient’s complete medical history, physicians can improve the quality, safety and efficiency of care.”
As a CCHIT Certified product, Ochsner’s OCW technology has been tested and approved for functionality, interoperability and security, according to CCHIT’s recently updated criteria. “The Commission has raised the bar from the previous year’s criteria and Ambulatory EHRs now must include electronic prescribing, demonstrate an ability to receive lab results, and show enhanced patient safety, quality, and security features,” said Mark Leavitt, M.D., CCHIT.
The CCHIT Certified mark — a “seal of approval” for EHR products — provides the first consensus-based, government-recognized benchmark for ambulatory EHR products. By looking to products with the CCHIT Certified seal, physicians and other providers can reduce their risk in selecting an EHR product, allowing them to focus their evaluation on the special needs of their practices.
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.
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