Category Archives: ‘Meaningful Use’

CMS Organizes FAQs on EHR Incentive Payments

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Electronic Health Record Incentive Payment FAQs, all 106 so far, reorganized in eleven categories.
CMS FAQs plus three sets of ONC FAQs related to Certification
Accessed from CMS and ONC sites on 11/10/2010.

ALL Electronic Health Records (EHR) FAQs

FAQS from ONC site related to Certificiation

  • ONC Regulations FAQs Related to Certification
                                  PDF Version of ONC Regulations FAQs
  • Standards and Certification Criteria Final Rule: Frequently Asked Questions
  • Temporary Certification Program: Frequently Asked Questions

    • Strategy for Empowering Consumers with Health IT: ONC Wants Your Feedback

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    Strategy for Empowering Consumers
    Monday, November 1st, 2010 | Posted by: Jodi G. Daniel JD MPH, Director of the Office of Policy and Planning, Office of National Coordinatator for Health IT and reposted here by e-Healthcare Marketing. 

    For the past few months, ONC has been reviewing the government’s role in empowering consumers to better manage their health through information technology (IT). As we work toward a future of widespread electronic health record adoption and meaningful use, and as we continue to see rapid technology advancements in this industry, there is opportunity for consumers to take fuller advantage of the benefits of health IT.

    Last week, we hosted a meeting with representatives from some of the leading consumer advocacy organizations in the country, including consumer protection agencies, disease advocacy groups, clinical innovation think tanks, and consumer health web designers. This particular meeting was focused on building a dialogue between the government, consumer organizations, and their members about the nation’s transition to electronic health records.  It further validated our belief that public input is critical to the process of focusing our work on areas where the federal government has an important role to play, and away from areas best left to others.

    ONC is currently drafting a five-year Federal Health IT Strategic Plan, which is scheduled for publication in early 2011. In the plan, our proposed framework for consumer empowerment takes into consideration our existing activities. But it also provides a unique opportunity to set forward-looking direction and do more for consumers over the next five years. We hope you will assist us.

    • First, do you agree with the four objectives listed below?
    • Second, what specific activities would you like to see the federal government take on? See the bullet points below each objective for some starting ideas of possible activities.   

    We will be unable to respond to every post but we will follow-up with another entry to reflect on the discussion.


    The Goal: Empower Consumers to Better Manage Their Health through Health IT

    • Objective A. Engage consumers in federal health IT policy and programs: In order for federal health IT policy and programs to be successful, consumers must both understand the impact of those policies and programs and have direct involvement in shaping them. Ideas for possible activities:
      • Fund a communication campaign to engage with consumers about the benefits of health IT
      • Host consumer listening sessions designed to get consumers’ input on programs and policies
      • Solicit consumer input to Federal Advisory Committees and into rulemaking processes
    • Objective B. Accelerate consumer access to electronic health information: Consumers will be better able to manage their health when they have timely and electronic access to their own health information. Ideas for possible activities:
      • Develop tools like the “Blue Button,” an application that enables veterans to download their health information online from My HealtheVet
      • Require electronic access of consumer health information by patients and address privacy protections for this information through federal regulations and policies
      • Create meaningful use incentives for physicians to share health information with patients
    • Objective C. Foster innovation in consumer health IT: Innovative tools will make electronic health information more useful to consumers and make managing their healthcare more convenient. Ideas for possible activities:
      • Fund research into innovative technologies
      • Launch pilots (such as the Beacon Community Program) that show ways to improve outcomes through the use of consumer health IT
      • Set up “technology test beds” that could define needs for new technologies in the clinical setting
    • Objective D. Drive consumer-provider electronic communications: Consumers can become more active participants in their health and care if providers encourage electronic communications and tools, such as secure e-mail and remote monitoring. Idea for possible activity:
      • Develop quality improvement initiatives that encourage providers to help empower consumers through their use of health IT

    Please post your comments directly on ONC Health IT Buzz blog.

    ONC Listens: BluePrint at ONC Innovations Seminar

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    ONC Listens: BluePrint at ONC Innovations Seminar
    Note:     On October 25, 2010, the ONC Innovations Seminar was led by BluePrint Healthcare IT in Washington, DC. The one-hour seminar entitled “HITECH in New Jersey: A View from the Private Sector” was part of a series featuring people from outside the Office of National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT sharing their experiences and ideas with the Office. This post reports on how three of my BluePrint colleagues and I got to speak with about twenty members of ONC (including several on a conference line) and share our experiences.

    ONC Innovations Seminar
    Sachin Jain MD, MBA, Special Assistant to David Blumenthal; and Wil Yu, Special Assistant for Innovation to the National Coordinator, invited the BluePrint team to Washington, DC to lead Monday’s ONC Innovation Seminar. Members of BluePrint had previously worked with the New Jersey and Delaware Valley HIMSS chapters to invite Jain and Yu to speak and meet with attendees at the chapters’ joint fall conference in Atlantic City in September.

    Jain initiated the ONC Innovations Series, which in its official description took “place every one to two weeks (for members of the ONC staff) and will bring in noted experts from the health IT community including technologists, patient and community advocates, grantees, academic researchers, government officials and others.”

    Seminar leaders have included Michael Porter (Harvard Business School and thought leader on Competitive Advantage), Mark McClelland (former head of FDA and CMS, now heading the Engleberg Center for Health  Care Reform at Brookings), Peter Pronovost  (Johns Hopkins physician and leader in patient safety), Lonny Reisman (Aetna’s chief medical officer), Richard Baron (Philadelphia area physician with Greenhouse Internists) and Rushika  Fernandopulle (an Atlantic City physician).

    Case Studies
    Speaking with ONC members at its October 25 seminar, BluePrint used three case studies to illustrate health IT challenges and how it was helping hospitals solve them: fast-tracking meaningful use security risk assessments; developing and implementing a workflow software tool to manage access to enterprise-wide software; and setting up a five-stage security and privacy framework at a community hospital to strengthen physician relationships and foster greater trust with patients. It also described its two-hour seminars offered to hospital leadership to prepare for meaningful use and readiness to receive EHR incentive payments.

    BluePrint’s Public Policy Role—New Jersey and beyond
    The seminar pointed out the new momentum fostered by New Jersey’s health IT leadership—statewide Health IT Coordinator Colleen Woods and Bill O’Byrne, executive director of NJ-HITEC, the state’s regional extension center. New Jersey submitted its HIE operational plan to ONC in August, and NJ-HITEC kicked off its clinician sign-up program for meaningful use support in October.

    Based on working with hospital CIOs, Vikas Khosla, the President and CEO of BluePrint, described the transformation of hospital and multi-hospital system CIOs from systems implementation and management executives to leaders of healthcare change management. Founded in 2003 to advise hospitals and multi-hospital systems on security and privacy issues, BluePrint has taken on a public policy role as well, including producing a series of workshops on HITECH Breach Enforcement in collaboration with NJ HIMSS and having Vikas serve as a subject matter expert for the state HIT Committee on Privacy and Security.

    The ONC’s Listening Continues
    This seminar series demonstrates one way ONC listens and learns. Another example, for which registration just opened this week, is the Personal Health Record Roundtable on December 3 in Washington, DC, to be chaired by HHS Chief Privacy Officer Joy Pritts. The roundtable will hear panels of “researchers, legal scholars, and representatives of consumer, patient, and industry organizations” in order to prepare recommendations, as stipulated in HITECH Act,  “related to the application of privacy and security requirements to non-HIPAA Covered Entities, with a focus on personal health record vendors and related service provider.”

    To the readers of e-Healthcare Marketing,  who are used to seeing this blogger’s collections of information and reports about Health IT and EHRs, thank you for taking the time to read about  the Washington trip of Vikas Khosla, President and CEO; Gregory Michaels, Director, Security and Compliance Solutions; Mohit Pasricha, Chief Solutions Architect, and me, Mike Squires, Vice President, Strategic Development and Public Policy, BluePrint Healthcare IT www.blueprinthit.com .
    – Mike Squires

    Blumenthal Letter #19: The Health IT Workforce Development Program: Help Is on the Way

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    The Health IT Workforce Development Program:
    Help Is on the Way                          

    Dr. David Blumenthal

    Dr. David Blumenthal

    A Message from Dr. David Blumenthal,
    the National Coordinator for
    Health Information Technology
    October 12, 2010               
    (Excerpted from ONC site 10/12/2010)
    When I talk with health professionals around the country about health information technology (health IT), they tell me they’re worried about a lack of technical support to help them become meaningful users of certified electronic health records (EHRs).

    Family physicians, in fact, say the lack of technical support is their biggest concern. Dr. Jason Mitchell of the American Academy of Family Physicians  (AAFP) Center for Health IT recently commented in an issue of AAFP News Now on the need for more resources to put people with expertise on the ground.

    With so many clinicians making the transition to EHRs in the coming year, Dr. Mitchell says, the expertise that exists right now is stretched too thin.

    In fact the data indicate a shortfall over the next five years of about 50,000 qualified health IT workers required to meet the needs of health professionals and hospitals as they move to adopt EHRs. As one vendor recently said, what we need is a “small army.”

    But clinicians don’t have to make the transition alone. ONC recognizes the technical and logistical challenges involved in installing, using, and maintaining EHRs. And we are facing this problem head on.

    The Health IT Workforce Development Program

    To help meet the growing demand for health IT professionals, ONC has awarded $84 million in funding for the Health IT Workforce Development Program, which consists of four key initiatives to support training and certification of skilled workers:

    • Community college non-degree training programs
    • Development of high-quality educational materials
    • A competency exam program to evaluate trainee knowledge and skills
    • University-based training programs for highly specialized health IT roles

    The Health IT Workforce Development Program is part of our comprehensive plan to facilitate EHR implementation and aims to ensure health professionals will have qualified technical support. It also provides a promising new career path for up and coming job seekers.

    And the good news is that the program is already well under way. In fact, we are starting to see the first results.

    Graduates Already On Their Way

    With funding from ONC, the University of Texas at Austin has implemented a new Health IT Summer Certificate Program — a program that graduated its first class of students this summer. The university is part of a consortium led by Texas State University and funded under ONC’s Program of Assistance for University-Based Training.

    The students, now certified “Health Information Managers and Exchange Specialists,” spent their summer learning:

    • The fundamentals of health IT
    • Business models used in medical practice
    • Medical practice workflow
    • Use of six EHR systems

    The full-time program takes nine weeks and provides intensive contact with the health IT business community through coursework and practice. It will be repeated in 2011, 2012, and 2013.

    Right now, most of the graduates are looking to enter — or have already entered — the health IT workforce. The remainder will be entering after they complete their college education next year.

    Graduates are landing jobs with consulting firms, software vendors, technical assistance companies, and health care providers.

    Next year, the University of Texas at Austin will begin offering three additional certificate programs in the following areas: Health Information Privacy and Security, Public Health Informatics, and Health Information Technology Sub-Specialist.

    Community Colleges Use New Health IT Curriculum

    Another initiative of the Health IT Workforce Development Program is the Curriculum Development Centers Program. Its purpose is to fund institutions of higher education to support the development of health IT curricula.

    Community colleges that are participating in the Community College Consortia to Educate Health Information Technology Professionals in Health Care Program, also funded by ONC, are now using the health IT curriculum developed by the Curriculum Development Centers.

    The five consortia include 84 community colleges — all of which are committed to training 10,500 community college students in health IT each year.

    Health IT classes have already started in most of these community colleges, and in just six months or less, these students can be ready for jobs helping physicians adopt and use EHRs. 

    What This Means

    The ball is rolling. Health IT workforce trainees are being fast-tracked. A new curriculum has been developed and disseminated. Very soon, support will be available to help physicians in the following areas:

    • Assess workflows
    • Select hardware and software
    • Work with vendors
    • Install and test systems
    • Diagnose IT problems
    • Train practice staff on systems

    All in all, the Health IT Workforce Development Program is expected to reduce the shortfall of skilled health IT professionals by 85%. The highly trained and specialized personnel developed through these programs will play a critical role in supporting physicians nationwide as they transition to EHRs.

    Help is not only on the way—it’s here.

    Sincerely,

    David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P.
    National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
    U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

    The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) encourages you to share this information as we work together to enhance the quality, safety and value of care and the health of all Americans through the use of electronic health records and health information technology.

    For more information and to receive regular updates from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, please subscribe to our Health IT News list.
    ###
    See all David Blumenthal’s Letters, on ONC’s Coordinator’s Corner.

    Meaningful Use — What it really means for you!: Oct 15 NY State HIMSS Fall Event

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    New York State HIMSS / Mini-HIMSS Fall Event:
    Meaningful Use – What it really means for you!
    Friday, October 15, 2010 
    8:00am – 6:00pm
    Location: New York’s Hotel Pennsylvania
    (401 7th Ave. & 33rd St. – Midtown Manhattan)
    http://himssnys.org/

    Registration Information

    Conference Agenda Now Available (PDF)!

    With federal Meaningful Use compliance dates looming, provider and healthcare organization leaders must navigate the complex regulatory landscape to fully recognize stimulus incentives. Join colleagues and peers as Healthcare IT leaders from across the state participate in discussions on Meaningful Use requirements and implications as well as related state HIT strategies and initiatives.

    Keynote speakers include:

    • David Whitlinger, Executive Director of New York eHeatlh Collaborative
    • Rachel Block, Deputy Commissioner, Office of HIT Transformation, NYS Department of Health
    • Dr. Amanda Parsons, Assistant Commissioner of the Primary Care Information Project, NYC Health Department
    • Dr. Holly Miller, CMIO MedAllies & HIMSS national Board of Directors Vice-Chair Elect
    • Dr. Steven Arnold, CMO of the Virginia Premier Health Plan & HIMSS national Board of Director

    CIO panel discussion moderated by past HIMSS national Chair George “Buddy” Hickman, featuring:

    • Paul Conocenti, Senior Vice President, Vice Dean, and CIO, NYU Medical Center
    • Robert Diamond, Vice President and CIO, HealthQuest
    • Jerry Powell, CIO, University of Rochester/Strong Memorial Hospital
    Click here to view the CIO panel biographies.

    Physician panel discussion moderated by past HIMSS New York State Chapter Chair Dr. Ken Ong, featuring:

    • Alison Connelly, Clinical Systems Administrator and Physician Assistant at Urban Health Plan, Bronx, New York
    • Dr. Olive Osborne, ophthalmology physician, Bronx, New York
    • Dr. Urmilla Shivram, pulmonology and internal medicine physician, Oakland Gardens, New York

    Raffles will be held throughout the day and conference to be followed by Vendor Exhibition and Cocktail Reception.

    The CPHIMS certification exam will also be offered at the conference (Click here to register for CPHIMS exam).

    To register for this important event, please click on the following link: Registration Information

    ONC Certified Health IT List (CHPL) of EHRs–Alpha Ordered

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    ONC Certified HIT List (CHPL) Published at Last
    NOTE: The EHR and EHR module list below has been reordered alphabetically according to vendor name by e-Healthcare Marketing and taken from the ONC list officially dated October 5, 2010. ONC’s official list can be found at http://onc-chpl.force.com/ehrcert

    The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT at last published its official list of tested and certified EHRs and EHR modules on October 8, 2010. Possible delays of only a few days between CCHIT sending ONC its list of tested and certified products and having the list validated by ONC, and ONC’s using a new platform from its HITRC (Health IT Research Center) and Partners, led to those in Health IT being baffled for a few days as to the status of the official list of ONC-ATCB’s (Authorized Testing and Certification bodies) certified, approved and ONC-validated EHRs. The waiting of those watching too closely is over.

    Excerpted from ONC on October 8, 2010:
    The ONC Certified HIT Product List (CHPL) provides a comprehensive listing of Complete EHRs and EHR Modules that have been tested and certified under the Temporary Certification Program.

    Each Complete EHR and EHR Module listed below has been tested and certified by an ONC-Authorized Testing and Certification Body (ATCB). The ONC-ATCB has reported certain required information about the Complete EHR or EHR Module to ONC and we have validated these reports. Certified EHR technologies are identified with the name of the certifying ATCB, the ONC certification number, vendor information, product information, and product version number.

    Please note: The CHPL lists only those EHR technologies that have been tested, certified, and reported to ONC by an ONC-ATCB, with reports validated by ONC. Only those EHR technologies appearing on the ONC-Certified Health IT Product List may be granted the reporting number that will be accepted by CMS for purposes of attestation under the EHR (“meaningful use”) incentives programs.

    Using the CHPL

    The Products Overview table references two types of EHR product certification classifications, one for Complete EHRs and one for EHR Modules.

    EHR technology classified as Complete EHRs are certified to meet all applicable certification criteria adopted by the Secretary in the Standards and Certification Criteria Final Rule (45 CFR Part 170 subpart C). In the Standards and Certification Criteria Final Rule, the Accounting for Disclosures certification criterion (§170.302(w)) is optional for EHR technologies and may not appear.

    EHR Modules are those EHR technologies that have been tested and certified to at least one of the certification criteria adopted by the Secretary in the Standards and Certification Criteria Final Rule. Due to the regulatory requirement that EHR Modules be tested and certified to the security criteria, as elaborated in the Temporary Certification Program Final Rule, EHR Modules will typically be tested and certified to more than one of the adopted certification criteria.

    The CHPL provides a snapshot of the current listing of certified EHR technologies, and is updated as newly certified EHR technologies are reported by ONC-ATCBs to ONC and validated.

    To determine which criterion an EHR technology is certified to meet, select “Certification Status” below for a listed product. The link will take you to the Product Certification Matrix indicating which of the Certification Criteria the product has been tested, certified, and reported to meet.

    Please note: This is Version 1.0 of the Certified Health IT Product List (CHPL). Version 2.0 is under development and is expected to provide additional information, such as a list of the Clinical Quality Measures to which a given product was tested; and additional functionality, such as different ways to query and sort the data for viewing. The later version will also provide the above-mentioned reporting number that will be accepted by CMS for purposes of attestation under the EHR (“meaningful use”) incentives programs. Please send suggestions and comments regarding the Certified Health IT Product List (CHPL) to ONC.certification@hhs.gov, with “CHPL” in the subject line.

    Product Certification Overview — Alpha Ordered by Vendor

    Vendor Product Product Class- ification Module Product Version # Certification Status Certifying ATCB ONC Certification #
    ABEL Medical Software Inc. ABELMed EHR – EMR / PM Complete EHR N/A 11 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-621996-1
    Allscripts Allscripts PeakPractice Modular N/A 5.5 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-216363-1
    Allscripts Allscripts Professional EHR Complete EHR N/A 9.2 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-395691-1
    Allscripts Allscripts ED Modular N/A 6.3 Servic View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-814405-1
    Aprima Medical Software, Inc Aprima Complete EHR N/A 2011 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-607751-1
    athenahealth, Inc athenaClinicals Complete EHR N/A 10.1 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-360400-1
    Cerner Corporation Cerner Millennium Powerchart, Cerner Millennium FirstNet, Cerner Millennium ProF Modular N/A Version 20 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-657723-1
    ChartLogic, Inc. ChartLogic EMR Complete Ambulatory NA 7 View Criteria Drummond Group Inc. 09232010-1945-1
    Compulink Advantage/EHR Complete EHR N/A 10 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-380800-1
    CureMD Corporation CureMD EHR Complete EHR N/A Version 10 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-789570-1
    eClinicalWorks LLC eClinicalWorks Complete EHR N/A 8.0.48 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-955447-1
    Epic Systems Corporation EpicCare Ambulatory – Core EMR Complete EHR N/A Spring 200 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-574355-2
    Epic Systems Corporation EpicCare Inpatient – Core EMR Complete EHR N/A Spring 200 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-574355-1
    GE Healthcare Centricity Advance Complete EHR N/A 10.1 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-470465-1
    gloStream, Inc. gloEMR Complete EHR N/A 6 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-501340-1
    Health Care Systems, Inc. HCS eMR Modular N/A 4 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-107740-1
    ifa united i-tech Inc. ifa EMR Modular Ambulatory 6 View Criteria Drummond Group Inc. 09222010-2627-1
    Intivia, Inc. InSync Complete Ambulatory N/A 5.4 View Criteria Drummond Group Inc. 09292010-2301-1
    Intuitive Medical Software UroChartEHR Complete EHR N/A 4 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-115970-1
    MCS – Medical Communication Systems, Inc. iPatientCare Complete EHR N/A 10.8 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-607019-1
    Medical Informatics Engineering WebChart EHR Complete EHR N/A Version 5. View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-844134-1
    Meditab Software, Inc. IMS Complete EHR N/A v. 14.0 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-372910-1
    NeoDeck Software NeoMed EHR Complete EHR N/A 3 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-879100-1
    NexTech Systems Inc. NexTech Practice 2011 Modular N/A 9.7 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-998990-1
    nextEMR, LLC nextEMR, LLC Modular N/A 1.5 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-300090-1
    NextGen Healthcare NextGen Ambulatory EHR Complete EHR N/A 5.6 SP1 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-345777-1
    Nortec Software Inc Nortec EHR Complete EHR N/A 7 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-837410-1
    PeriGen PeriBirth Modular N/A 4.3.51 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-586750-1
    Prognosis Health Information Systems ChartAccess Complete EHR N/A 4 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-216590-1
    Pulse Systems 2011 Pulse Complete EHR Complete EHR N/A 2011 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-946110-1
    QRS, Inc. PARADIGM Modular Ambulatory 8.3 View Criteria Drummond Group Inc. 09202010-8775-1
    Sammy Systems SammyEHR Modular N/A 5.1.1 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-789800-1
    SuccessEHS SuccessEHS Complete EHR N/A 6 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-909422-1
    The DocPatientNetwork.com Doctations Complete EHR N/A 2 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-371480-1
    T-System Technologies, Ltd. T SystemEV Modular N/A 2.7 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-239140-2
    T-System Technologies, Ltd. T SystemEV Modular N/A 2.7 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-239140-1
    Universal EMR Solutions Physician’s Solution Modular N/A 5 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-681600-1
    Vision Infonet Inc., MDCare EMR Modular N/A 4.2 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-516500-1
    WellCentive WellCentive Patient Registry Modular N/A Version 2. View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-946650-1
    Wellsoft Corporation Wellsoft EDIS Modular N/A v11 View Criteria CCHIT CC-1112-527400-1

    IOM: Study to Improve Health Care Safety with Health IT

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    Institute of Medicine will study best policies and practices for improving health care safety with health information technology
    HHS Press Release on Wednesday, September 29, 2010                         

    The Institute of Medicine (IOM) will conduct a 1-year study aimed at ensuring that health information technology (HIT) will achieve its full potential for improving patient safety in health care.  The study will be carried out under a $989,000 contract announced today by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), which is charged with coordinating federal efforts regarding HIT adoption and meaningful use.

    “Since 1999, when the IOM published its ground-breaking study To Err Is Human, the Institute has been a leader in the movement to improve patient safety,” said David Blumenthal, M.D., national coordinator for health information technology.  “This study will draw on IOM’s depth of knowledge in this area to help all of us ensure that HIT reaches the goals we are seeking for patient safety improvement.”

    The study will examine a comprehensive range of patient safety-related issues, including prevention of HIT-related errors and rapid reporting of any HIT-related patient safety issues.  It will make recommendations concerning the potential effects of government policies and private sector actions in maximizing patient safety and avoiding medical errors through HIT.  Highlights of the study will include: 

    * Summary of existing knowledge of the effects of HIT on patient safety;

    * Identifying approaches to promote the safety-enhancing features of HIT while protecting patients from any safety problems associated with HIT;

    * Identifying approaches for preventing HIT-related patient safety problems before they occur;

    * Identifying approaches for surveillance and reporting activities to bring about rapid detection and correction of patient safety problems;

    * Addressing the potential roles of private sector entities such as accrediting and certification bodies as well as patient safety organizations and professional and trade associations; and

    * Discussion of existing authorities and potential roles for key federal agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). 

    “The IOM is pleased to have the opportunity to add its expertise and convening power in helping to achieve the goals of improved safety through HIT-assisted care,” said IOM President Harvey Fineberg, M.D. 

    Donald Berwick, M.D., CMS administrator and a national leader on patient safety, said, “Improving patient safety in health care depends on thoroughness in planning and execution, to find problems systematically and correct them decisively.  We have high expectations for patient safety improvement through HIT, but achieving those goals will require the same careful and vigorous approach that is needed to improve safety in any enterprise.  The IOM can help us identify a productive path to better patient safety with the help of HIT.” 

    Substantial funding under the Health Information Technology Economic and Clinical Health Act, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, will support the adoption and meaningful use of HIT, especially through incentives for the adoption and meaningful use of certified electronic health records. In July, CMS announced regulations outlining the initial requirements that eligible health care providers must meet to demonstrate meaningful use of certified EHR technology for the Medicare and Medicaid incentive payments program, which CMS will administer.  Also in July, ONC announced regulations completing the adoption of an initial set of standards, implementation specifications and certification criteria to enable the testing and certification of EHR technology for meaningful use Stage 1.  Earlier this month, ONC named initial testing and certifying bodies. 

    More information about HIT and support for adoption and meaningful use can be found on the web at www.healthit.hhs.gov.

    ONC’s FACA Meeting Calendar for Sept 2010

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    ONC logoSept 2010 FACA Meeting Calendar
    Emailed by ONC on Sept 10, 2010

     
    Please be sure the following Federal Advisory Committee (FACA) meetings are on your calendars!

    See the ONC Website, http://healthit.hhs.gov/FACAs, for information on how to participate via phone or web, or how to find the location of the public hearings (indicated with an asterisk *) which will be held at hotels in the Washington DC metro area.  

    HIT Policy Committee Meetings 
    Information Exchange Workgroup, Sept 13, 11 am to 2 pm/EDT

    HIT Policy Committee*, Sept 14, 10 am to 3 pm/EDT
    Crystal Gateway Marriott, Arlington, VA

    Meaningful Use WG*, Sept 22, 8:30 am to 4 pm/EDT
    Park Hyatt Washington, Washington, DC

    Enrollment WG, Sept 24, 11 am to 2 pm/EDT

    Privacy & Security Tiger Team, Sept 24, 3 pm to 5 pm/EDT

    Governance WG*, Sept 28, 9 am to 5 pm/EDT
    Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, DC

    Quality Measures WG, Sept 29, 2 pm to 5 pm/EDT

    Information Exchange WG*, Sept 30, 9 am to 4 pm/EDT
    Location to be determined.

    HIT Standards Committee Meetings
    Implementation WG, Sept 15, 12 pm to 2 pm/EDT

    HIT Standards Committee*, Sept 21, 9 am to 3 pm/EDT
    Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, DC  

    Vocabulary Task Force, Sept 23, 10 am to 11:30 am/EDT  

    Clinical Operations WG, Sept 23, 12 pm to 1:30 pm/EDT

    ONC’s McKethan Blogs on New Health IT Beacon Communities: Cincinnati and Detroit

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    Two New Communities Join the Beacon Family
    Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 | Posted by: Aaron McKethan Director of Beacon Communities Program on ONC’s Health IT Buzz blog and republished by e-Healthcare Marketing here.

    The Beacon Community program seeks to demonstrate how health IT-enabled improvements in health care quality, efficiency, and population health are possible, sustainable, and replicable in diverse communities across America. The program includes average three-year awards of $15 million to diverse communities with above-average electronic health record adoption rates and, in most cases, experience with information exchange. Collaborations of leaders from each of the 15 Beacon Communities that were awarded back in May have been busy operationalizing and implementing their health IT-enabled innovations that can support new ways of coordinating and streamlining health care and, ultimately, improving the health of local communities. We look forward to sharing more details about these initial activities in the near future.

    Today, we are delighted to welcome two additional communities to the Beacon family. They are Greater Cincinnati HealthBridge, Inc. (Cincinnati, OH) and Southeastern Michigan Health Association (Detroit, MI).

    The Greater Cincinnati HealthBridge, Inc., serving a 16-county area spanning three states, will work with its partners to build upon an advanced health information exchange to deploy new quality improvement and care coordination initiatives focusing on patients with pediatric asthma and adult diabetes. This program will use health IT tools and resources to provide streamlined and secure clinical information and decision support tools to physicians, health systems, federally qualified health centers, and critical access hospitals. The community collaboration will also provide patients and their families with timely access to data, knowledge, and tools to make more informed decisions and to manage their own health and health care.

    The Southeastern Michigan Health Association and its community partners will focus its efforts on preventing and better managing diabetes using health IT tools and resources. Specifically, this effort will focus on coordinating care across health care settings by improving the availability of patient information at the point of care, redesigning patient care work processes, and applying quality improvement and other change management strategies to improve the quality and efficiency of diabetes care in the greater Detroit area.

    The success of the Beacon Communities will not be judged by whether they are able to expand the adoption of health IT. Rather, they will be evaluated on the extent to which patients receive measurably better care at a lower overall cost. We are very proud to welcome these new partners representing two communities that are committed to lofty but important aims. We are confident they will demonstrate effective strategies for the nation in the coming years, and we look forward to integrating them into the forward-looking Beacon Community family.
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    To comment on this blog post, please go directly to ONC’s  Health IT Buzz blog directly.

    ONC Site Map Updated in Conjunction with New Health IT Unified Theme

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    “Connecting America for Better Health” – ONC for HIT
    Web Site Map for Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT
    On August 27, 2010, the Office of National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT announced a new “unified identity for Health IT”  which includes a “new theme and visual identity” for the ONC Web site and ONC and can be seen at the top of ONC Web pages.

    The site map below for  ONC’s Web site is pulled primarily from the left navigation bar on the ONC site with some additional links to key areas. [Please send any corrections or comments to e-Healthcare Marketing. This is an update to a previous site map posted on February 16, 2010 on e-Healthcare Marketing, including new workgroups.]

    While the visible structure of the Web site remains mainly the same, the home page and much of the underlying architecture appears to have been updated to simplify access to users, highlight new and important content, and simplify the addition of new information anticipated to come soon, such as announcements of the  Authorized Testing and Certification Bodies (ATCB) and Certified EHRs and EHR Modules.

    The new theme and identity ”really captures the spirit of these combined efforts to boost national adoption of electronic health records and ensure success. The insignia will also help people easily identify and connect with official HITECH information, resources, programs, and partners,” wrote Communucations Director Peter Garrett on the Health IT Buzz blog on August 27, 2010. Now to the site map.

    DERIVED SITE MAP FOR  http://healthit.hhs.gov

    FEATURED AREAS
              Meaningful Use
              Certification Program
              Privacy and Security
              HITECH Programs
              On the Frontlines of Health Information Technology
                   NEJM Articles: Dr. Blumenthal
                                                 Dr. Benjamin
              Federal Advisory Committees

    Top Banner Links
              Get email updates from ONC
              Follow ONC on Twitter

    HITECH & FUNDING Opportunities
              Contract Opportunities
              Learn about HITECH
              HIT Extension Program — Regional Extension Centers Program
              Beacon Community Program

    HITECH PROGRAMS
         State Health Information Exchange Cooperative Agreement Program
         Health Information Technology Extension Program
         Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Projects (SHARP) Program
         Community College Consortia to Educate HIT Professionals Program
         Curriculum Development Centers Program
         Program of Assistance for University-Based Training
         Competency Examination Program
         Beacon Community Program

    FEDERAL ADVISORY COMMITTEES
                      (Meeting Calendar At-A-Glance)

    HEALTH IT POLICY COMMITTEE
    HIT Policy Committee Meetings
              Meeting Webcast & Participation
                  Upcoming Meetings
                  Past Meetings
    HIT Policy Committee Recommendations
    HIT Policy Committee Workgroups
              Meaningful Use
              Certification/Adoption
              Information Exchange
              Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN)
              Strategic Planning
              Privacy & Security Policy
              Enrollment
              Privacy & Security Tiger Team
              Governance
              Quality Measures

    HEALTH IT STANDARDS COMMITTEE
    Health IT Standards Committee Meetings
              Meeting Webcast & Participation
                  Upcoming Meetings
                  Past Meetings
    HIT Standards Committee Recommendations
    HIT Standards Committee Workgroups
              Clinical Operations
              Clinical Quality
              Privacy & Security
              Implementation
              Vocabulary Task Force              

    REGULATIONS & GUIDANCE     
               Meaningful Use
               Privacy and Security
               Standards and Certification
                
    ONC INITIATIVES
              State-Level Health Initiatives 
              Nationwide Health Information Network
              Federal Health Architecture
              Adoption
              Clinical Decision Support & the CDS Collaboratory             
              Events
                     FACA Meeting Calendar
              Fact Sheets
              Reports
              Federal Health IT Programs
              Technical Expert Workshops
              Acronyms
              Glossary

    OUTREACH, EVENTS, & RESOURCES
             News Releases (2007 – Present)
             Events
             FACA Meeting Calendar
             Fact Sheets
             Reports 
             Federal Health IT Programs
             Technical Expert Workshops
             Acronyms 
             Glossary

    ABOUT ONC
              Coordinator’s Corner: Updates from Dr. Blumenthal
              Organization               
              Budget & Performance
              Contact ONC and Job Openings
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    For a review of the new look and feel of the ONC site, see an earlier post on e-Healthcare Marketing.