Commission Approves CCHIT Certified® 08 Inpatient, Emergency Department, and Enterprise EHR Criteria

Application periods announced; public comment invited on roadmap for future in all areas

CHICAGO – June 20, 2008 –The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology announced today that it has published its approved final criteria for certification of Inpatient (hospital-based) and Emergency Department electronic health record (EHR) products, as well as a special Enterprise EHR certification for vendors that provide comprehensive Ambulatory, Inpatient, and Emergency Department EHRs that are interoperable. The first round of applications for certification under these new 08 criteria will be accepted Aug. 1-14, with certified products expected to be announced in November. The final certification criteria, test scripts and associated program policy documents are published on the Commission's Web site, www.cchit.org.   

A Town Call teleconference for vendors interested in certification, especially those offering Emergency Department EHRs or seeking Enterprise certification, is scheduled for July 10 to introduce these new programs. Time and details of the teleconference will be available at www.cchit.org.

The publication of these materials wraps up the Commission’s development work on EHR certification for the CCHIT Certified 08 program.  The Commission published the final Ambulatory, Child Health and Cardiovascular Medicine criteria on May 20, and will be accepting certification applications in those domains from July 1-14.

“We believe 08 certification adds value for all stakeholders as well as embracing new domains of care,” said Mark Leavitt, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Commission.  “Ambulatory and inpatient EHRs must now be able to send and receive clinical summaries in the CCD format – making basic elements of health records, such as medications and allergies, interoperable and portable for the first time.  And with new health IT adoption incentive programs – such as the CMS EHR Demonstration Project – now being launched, vendors serious about the EHR market will want to attain 08 certification.”

Important Upcoming Dates

The Commission announced these upcoming dates:

  • Public Comment:  A public comment period is open June 20 through July 20; documents for comment may be found at www.cchit.org. They include:
    • Future Directions Document:  This document outlines the Commission’s strategic view of areas for certification development in the next cycle and beyond.
    • Roadmap Columns for 09 and 10 and beyond, found within all 08 criteria documents published, are open to comment.
    • Network Criteria and Test Scripts for the CCHIT Certified 08 Certification Program
  • Application Period for Ambulatory, Child Health and Cardiovascular Medicine EHRs: July 1-14.
  • Application Period for Inpatient, Emergency Department and Enterprise EHRs: August 1-14
  • Vendor Education Sessions: Will be held July 29-31 for all CCHIT Certified 08 EHR programs. Details will be available June 24 at www.cchit.org/education.

Pilot Program Participants

The Commission also announced the participants in the 2008 pilot tests. The Pilot Tests were designed to validate new or revised criteria, test steps, and testing tools against real products and to solicit vendor comment to fine tune the inspection process. The following companies qualified and participated:

  • Cerner Corporation
  • EDIMS, LLC
  • Emergisoft Corporation
  • Epic Systems Corporation
  • Greenway Medical Technologies
  • NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, Inc.
  • Wellsoft Corporation

About CCHIT

The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT®) is an independent, nonprofit organization that has been recognized by the federal government as an official 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 CCHIT and CCHIT Certified® products is available at www.cchit.org.