Certification for Healthcare Information Technology

Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT)

CCHIT is an independent, voluntary, private-sector initiative whose mission is to accelerate the adoption of health information technology by creating an efficient, credible and sustainable product certification program. Reducing the risk of HIT investment, increasing the transparency of the EHR marketplace and ensuring inter-operability of HIT products are some of the goals of the certification commission. Incorporation of standards in Healthcare Information Technology products is essential for certification as CCHIT evaluation criteria include standards.

CCHIT Certification and Interoperability

CCHIT certification criteria include standards and are based on commonly available standards. The evaluation criteria will evolve along with standards development on an on-going basis. The standards harmonization process of Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP) provides vital input to CCHIT, as the evaluation criteria will be based upon standards selected / adapted by ANSI-HITSP. In scenarios of competing standards, more than one might be referenced as supporting the needed functionality. CCHIT provides vendors guidelines for their development plans.

Interoperability is emerging to be a vital aspect of electronic health records. Selection of a certified product does increase the likelihood that a system will have the ability to interoperate with others now and also in the future. CCHIT interoperability criteria are evolving based on advancements and the changing landscape. Practices should make sure their EHR vendor is keeping up with the changing criteria and maintaining certification.

CCHIT Certified Ambulatory Electronic Health Record (EHR) Products

Ambulatory EHR products for office-based physicians and providers have been tested for a comprehensive set of criteria that include:

• Functionality – features and functions that meet a basic set of requirements
• Interoperability – enables standards-based data exchange
• Security – ensures privacy of data

Click below for list of
CCHIT Certified Ambulatory Electronic Health Record (EHR) Products.
Currently, ~89 ambulatory EHR products have been certified and the list will increase as more products are certified.

CCHIT Certified Inpatient Electronic Health Record (EHR) Products

CCHIT is in the process of certifying in-patient EHR products. For more details on this effort visit:
http://www.cchit.org/work/inpatient+criteria.htm
No inpatient EHR products have been certified yet and CCHIT is in process of creation of criteria for evaluation.

CCHIT Certification and Product Evaluation

An EHR is a major financial investment for practices that has long-term impact. Practices should tap into the work of CCHIT for product evaluation and combine it with due diligence and practice-specific evaluation criteria.

CCHIT can impact EHR selection by practices and HIT adoption:

• CCHIT certification can be used to narrow the list of available vendors.
• The products certified by CCHIT can be assured of a set of basic functionality. The practices can then focus on the evaluation of practice-specific needs.
• The evaluation criteria of CCHIT do not encompass service metrics of the company and hence a practice should evaluate them.
• CCHIT evaluates only the product and not the company nor its financial status and viability. The due diligence on those metrics should be performed by the practice that is purchasing the product.