Hospital Buyer

The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) announced the most recently certified electronic health record (EHR) systems designed for office-based physicians. This is the first series of systems that were approved considering the new criteria for 2008.

The overall criteria were revised to ensure security, functionality, and interoperability. A complete description of the updated criteria is posted on the CCHIT website. This further includes information to aid clinicians and their staff in choosing an EHR system.  Additional information included, for the first time, is required vendor disclosures about the company

Nineteen additional criteria were added in 2008. One of those evaluates capability to complete electronic prescribing with more complex features to complete such. A second addition considers interoperability and the means to exchange patient information, specifically the means to transmit electronic patient summaries.

Eight different EHR products for the Ambulatory setting were approved under the 2008 CCHIT guidelines. Those include:

• MEDENT from Community Computer Service, Incorporated,
• eClinical Works, version 8 from eClinical Workis,
• EpicCare Ambulatory EHR from Epic Systems Corporation,
• PrimeSuite version 2008 from Greenway Medical Technologies, Incorporated,
• Practice Partner version 9.3 from McKesson Provider Technologies,
• MedLink TotalOffice version 3.1 from MedLink International, Incorporated,
• MedPlexus EHR version 9.2 from MedPlexus, Incorporated, and
• NextGen EMR from NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, Incorporated.

Two other products, yet to be released to the market, received conditional approval from CCHIT. Those are SmartClinic version 16 from VIP Medicine LLC and Pulse Patient Relationship Management version 4.1 from Pulse Systems.
Additional certifications made available this year include child health and cardiovascular medicine.

October 7, 2008 Related topics: Product Approval & Certification, IT & software