The Certification Commission for Health IT (CCHIT) is confident about its prospects for becoming accredited after reviewing the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) regarding certifying bodies of EHR certification, according to Alisa Ray, executive director of CCHIT.

Joint Commission Resources, an affiliate of the Joint Commission, has launched a new consulting service that will provide an objective evaluation of technology with a patient safety focus.

Kaiser Permanente has reported that every medical facility within the health system is now equipped with its HealthConnect, a private-sector EHR system.

ATLANTAAt the HIMSS10 conference this week, McKesson displayed a variety of EHR software ranging from systems for large hospitals and networks to products for small physician practices.

With a push from the HITECH Act for facilities to install EMR software solutions, GE Healthcare has created a technology suite under its Centricity EMR solution and revenue cycle management tools that will increase the speed of the installation process.

Among the many differences between the proposed regulations for meaningful use of electronic health records and a draft circulated last summer is that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) now wants hospitals and physician practices to implement clinical decision support (CDS) for a minimum of five high-priority conditions in order to qualify for federal subsidies in 2011.

ATLANTAAt a roundtable discussion at HIMSS, David Blumenthal, MD, National Coordinator for Health IT, took a range of questions from about three dozen AMDIS members and physician IT leaders and emphasized the need for CMIOs and healthcare professionals to submit their comments to CMS as well as their congressional representatives.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) Tuesday released a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for the establishment of two certification programs for purposes of testing and certifying health ITone temporary and one permanent.