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Any hospital or Physician will have some key concerns regarding their EMR/EHR purchase: Security, Functionality, Interoperability, Quality, Cost & ROI etc. With more than 300 vendors in the market, how do they choose the best EMR/EHR that can address these concerns provided it suits the particular hospital or physician practice? To be eligible for EMR subsidies outlined in the Stimulus Bill, healthcare providers must demonstrate use of a “qualified EMR” in a “meaningful manner”. In other words, a hospital or a physician practice should have deployed an EMR/EHR that meets the meaningful Use Objectives criteria laid down by HHS. How does a healthcare provider know if a particular EMR/EHR meets the standards? This is where CCHIT comes into picture and proves to be a panacea for the above mentioned concerns.

CCHIT stands for The Certification Commission for Health IT. It is an independent non profit organization, which is a merger of the following associations teamed together for funding and support: AHIMA - American Health Information Management Association, HIMSS - The Health Information and Management Systems Society and National Alliance for Health Information Technology (Alliance). The Commission, chaired by Mark Leavitt,is currently composed of 21 members, each serving two-year terms. Its mission is to accelerate the adoption of robust, interoperable health information technology by creating a credible, efficient certification process.

The Certification Commission is an officially “recognized certification body” in the United States for EHR products. The certification fees – $29,000 for the initial review and $6,000 in annual maintenance fees over the three-year certification. As of March 2009, CCHIT certifies EHRs based on about 475 criteria spanning EHR functionality, interoperability and security. At present, CCHIT offers 3 types of certifications. They are:

• (EHR-C) - maximal assurance of EHR capabilities and compliance

• (EHR-M) - A new, modular certification program for electronic prescribing, personal health records, registries, and other technologies. Focuses on basic compliance with Federal standards and security, the program would be offered at lower cost, and could accommodate a wide variety of specialties, settings, and technologies. It would appeal to providers who prefer to combine technologies from multiple certified sources.

• (EHR-S) - A simplified, low cost site-level certification, enable providers who self-develop or assemble EHRs from non-certified sources to also qualify for the ARRA incentives.

Currently, CCHIT does not evaluate: Ease-of-use of EHR software products, Quality of customer support offered by the software vendor and Financial viability of the vendor company. The Certification Commission stays abreast of the new demands that practices face, and ensures that CCHIT Certified® products have the capability of fulfilling those needs. Certified products qualify for ARRA Incentives, special exemption to the Stark and anti-kickback laws, PQRI and some professional liability insurers are offering premium discounts for use of certified EHRs.

A jury of three EHR experts including at least one practicing physician—observes a carefully scripted product demonstration. This inspection takes a full day and covers four distinct clinical scenarios. As of March 2009,Eighty-some ambulatory EHRs received certification against the 2006 CCHIT criteria,sixteen EHRs received certification against the more rigorous 2007 criteria and twenty have achieved CCHIT certification for the 2008 Ambulatory EHR criteria. We estimate this equates to roughly 30% of all ambulatory EHRs being certified, while additional EHR vendors are currently pursuing certification for their systems.

For more information , visit http://www.cchit.org/