Certification Commission Launches Survey Network Certification Program

CHICAGO – February 14, 2008 – The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology announced today that it is launching a survey to help in the development of its Network certification program – the third phase of its federally-funded certification program expansion. The survey is designed to gauge the needs of health information exchange (HIE) groups that would apply for Network certification and assess the market readiness for the new certification program.

Organizations that define themselves as health information exchanges, networks, regional health information organizations or others organized to support the sharing of clinical patient information are invited to take the survey. Survey results will provide a snapshot of the stage of development of health information exchanges, the kind of data that is primarily exchanged, and the value certification would bring to the networks. The survey allows participants to submit comments and feedback directly to the Certification Commission. Results of the survey will be used by the Network Work Group to make recommendations to the Commission about the new program scheduled to be launched in late September. Additional opportunity to comment directly on the Network criteria and test scripts will be available in April.

The survey is available at cchit.org/surveys/network until March 15.

About the Certification Commission

The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology is an independent, nonprofit organization that has been officially named by the federal government as a “recognized certification body” for electronic health record products.  Its mission is to accelerate the adoption of health information technology by creating a credible, sustainable product certification program.  The certification requirements are based on widely accepted industry standards and involve the work of hundreds of expert volunteers and input from a variety of stakeholders throughout the health care industry.  More information on the Commission and CCHIT CertifiedSM products is available at www.cchit.org.

“CCHITSM” and “CCHIT CertifiedSM” are service marks of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology.