Medsphere: New ONC EHR Certification Program ‘Levels Playing Field for Open Source’
Enables Hospitals to Affordably Achieve Meaningful Use of Health IT and Improve Care
Medsphere Systems Corporation, the leading provider of open-source healthcare enterprise solutions, today voiced support for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s newly announced temporary health IT certification program. The terms of ONC’s temporary certification program will determine which health IT vendors can help hospitals and physician practices meet “meaningful use” requirements for federal stimulus funding included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
“ONC’s temporary certification program levels the playing field for open-source electronic health record systems like OpenVista and gives healthcare providers of any size or budget more opportunities to find an appropriate and affordable solution,” said Medsphere President and CEO Mike Doyle. “By emphasizing ‘meaningful’ use and results over features and functions, these new standards encourage hospitals to focus on actual clinical improvement instead of getting bogged down in meaningless compliance that doesn’t help clinicians, institutions or patients.
“Medsphere guarantees that our open-source solution will meet every certification standard. As the country’s leading (VA) VistA EHR derivative, OpenVista gives hospitals an affordable and flexible alternative to the staggering expense of proprietary EHRs.”
The ONC announcement effectively shifts certification authority away from the Certification Commission for Health IT and fast-tracks the certification process. CCHIThas, until now, dominated the industry with a focus on feature-function criteria; these favor big expensive systems that small and/or “safety net” hospitals can ill afford. By broadening standards to include open-source, self-developed and other non-proprietary systems, ONC opens the door for diverse solutions that resource-challenged healthcare providers can leverage as they race to achieve meaningful use of EHR and qualify for ARRA stimulus dollars.
