On Wednesday, a coalition of 35 medical societies led by the American Medical Association sent a letter to the ONC National Coordinator for Health IT Karen DeSalvo, M.D., urging to change the EHR certification program to “align to better align end-to-end testing to focus on EHR usability, interoperability, and safety.”
The nine page letter to Karen DeSalvo states, “The undersigned organizations are writing to elevate our concern about the current trajectory of the certification of electronic health records (EHRs). Among physicians there are documented challenges and growing frustration with the way EHRs are performing. Many physicians find these systems cumbersome, do not meet their workflow needs, decrease efficiency, and have limited, if any, interoperability. Most importantly, certified EHR technology can present safety concerns for patients.”
Recommendations to EHR Certification
The letter strongly recommends the following seven changes to EHR certification:
1. Decouple EHR certification from the Meaningful Use program
2. Re-consider alternative software testing methods and incorporate tests that:
• Make testing clinically plausible;
• Expose failures to deliver desired benefits;
• Increase the value of testing;
• Ensure ability to use data within and across EHRs;
• Improve the efficiency of testing;
• Reduce setup of testing; and
• Make testing consistent and replicable
3. Establish greater transparency and uniformity on UCD testing and process results
4. Incorporate exception handling into EHR certification
5. Develop C-CDA guidance and tests to support exchange
6. Seek further stakeholder feedback
7. Increase education on EHR implementation
Read the full letter here.
