HHS issues HIT safety plan

The Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) has issued its Health IT Patient Safety Action and Surveillance Plan, which addresses the role of health IT in helping to eliminate medical errors, protect patients and improve the quality and safety of healthcare.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) will implement the safety plan. The plan outlines the responsibilities to be shared across HHS and details significant participation from the private sector, including the following:

• ONC will make it easier for clinicians to report health IT-related incidents and hazards through the use of certified EHR technology.
• The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality will encourage reporting to Patient Safety Organizations and will develop ambulatory Common Formats that will enhance reporting of health IT events outside the hospital.
• The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will encourage the use of the Common Formats in hospital incident reporting systems, and train surveyors to identify safe and unsafe practices associated with health IT.
• Working through a public-private process, ONC will develop priorities for improving the safety of health IT. ONC and CMS will consider adopting safety-related objectives, measures and capabilities for certified EHRs through the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs and ONC’s standards and certification criteria.

ONC also has posted guidance clarifying that ONC-Authorized Certification Bodies (ONC-ACBs) will be expected to verify whether safety-related capabilities work properly in live clinical settings in which they are implemented.

Access the complete report here.