HealthIT is the area of Information Technology
involving the design, development, creation, use and maintenance of
information systems for the healthcare industry. Automated and
interoperable healthcare information systems are expected to lower
costs, improve efficiency and reduce error, while also providing
better patient care and service.
Handwritten reports or notes, manual order entry, non-standard
abbreviations and poor legibility lead to substantial errors and
injuries, according to the Institute of Medicine (2000) report. The
follow-up IOM (2004) report, Crossing the quality chasm: A new
health system for the 21st century, advised rapid adoption of
electronic patient records, electronic medication ordering, with
computer- and internet-based information systems to support
clinical decisions.
The Electronic Medical Record (EMR) is an individual's official,
digital health record and is shared among multiple facilities and
agencies and is the central component of the HealthIT
infrastructure.
Providers and patients must be confident that
the electronic health information technology (health IT) products
and systems they use are secure, can maintain data confidentially,
can work with other systems to share information, and can perform a
set of well-defined functions.
To this effect, OpenEMR is ONC Complete Ambulatory EHR certified and is one of the most popular electronic medical records in use today.
HealthIT Kenya works closely with the OpenEMR foundation
to bring Kenyan medical paractitioners and practices, a robust and
full featured, certified Electronic Medical Records system along
with the peace-of-mind of remote data security.
The ONC-ATCB certification program includes inspection of EHRs used by both eligible providers and hospitals to support the CMS Meaningful Use Stage 1 measures.
In the ONC-ATCB program, EHR technology is inspected to meet the ONC certification criteria and standards using test procedures and tools developed for ONC by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). In addition, ONC regularly publishes "regulatory FAQs" that address many of the questions that ONC-ATCBs receive from vendors or provider sites, e.g., guidance on what gets tested and certified, approaches to various testing requests and situations, and providing interpretations and guidance relevant to the ONC-ATCBs regarding certification criteria and test procedures.
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2012