Taking baby steps

This week the Health IT Policy Committee (HITPC) held its monthly meeting and two big issues were efforts to streamline the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT’s operations and advancing the exchange of behavioral health information.

About one month after providers, vendors, accreditors and private sector representatives scrutinized the EHR certification program as overly prescriptive during an all-day hearing, the HITPC formally recommended a multi-stakeholder “kaizen” meeting to help streamline the certification process.

The group ended up voting to recommend that the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) look into limiting the scope of the program in a general sense.

“This is an area where there is an opportunity for improvement,” said National Health IT Coordinator Karen DeSalvo, MD, MPH, MSc, speaking on why ONC is looking to retool certification. She said she would get back to the committee on how long setting up a kaizen process would take. “The notion of creating a culture of continuous improvement is a high priority for us.”

The HITPC also voted to move forward recommendations regarding sending and receiving capabilities for behavioral health data.

Considering the restrictions on behavioral health data and the high level of sensitivity, the Privacy and Security Tiger Team recommends both required certification criterion for behavioral health providers and voluntary certification criterion for general providers.

The Privacy and Security Tiger Team acknowledges that this is “a baby step from a technical standpoint, at least as it moves from the status quo of zero digital exchange to this very initial level,” said Chair Deven McGraw. “To get there, you really do need catchers to be empowered to at least receive and view the data.”

A series of baby steps seems the best way to go for lasting change. What do you think?

Beth Walsh

Clinical Innovation + Technology editor