Electronic Health Records: The National Perspective

Toward the President’s goal of private sector certification of health information technology products, the newly established nonprofit Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) was awarded a three-year contract by the HHS in September 2005 to develop and evaluate certification criteria and create an inspection process for HIT in three areas: ambulatory electronic health records (EHRs) for the office-based physician or provider; inpatient EHRs for hospitals and health systems; and the network components through which they interoperate and share information.

Meanwhile, Congress has entered the fray with separate bills based in the House and Senate, covering such aspects as data storage, recommendations for a national committee to develop standards, and a permanent structure to govern national interoperability standards. The House and Senate versions differed in several other areas, however, and a fall meeting between lawmakers from both branches filed to resolve differences in the bills prior to congressional adjournment for the elections.

Sue Pondrom

©2007 The Triological Society