Carol Bean / Director, Office of Certification and Testing
Peter Garrett / Director, Office of Communications
More and more Americans across the country are relying on their doctors and hospitals to provide them with top-quality health care. Health information technology (HIT) makes it possible for health care providers to better manage patient care with secure sharing of health information through technology like electronic health records (EHRs), helping to improve patient care.
ONC is at the forefront of this effort to modernize healthcare, supporting the adoption of certified HIT and the promotion of nationwide health information exchange to improve health care.
ONC takes HIT certification seriously
Providers should feel confident that the tools they are using are helping them to provide the best care possible to their patients. It’s important to us that providers trust that the product that they buy meets our standards. That’s why we’re excited to announce the launch of the official certification mark for ONC’s Certified HIT Program for EHR technology.
The Certified HIT Program ensures HIT meets Meaningful Use standards
The ONC HIT Certification Program ensures that EHR technologies meet standards and certification criteria to help providers and hospitals achieve Meaningful Use (MU) objectives and measures established by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
The ONC Certified HIT Mark is the overarching symbol for better health through better health information. For consumers interested in more coordinated care, it also says that doctors and hospitals will have the capability to securely share and use their information and ultimately improve their care.
Independent certification bodies will administer the ONC Certified HIT Mark
Under the new program, ONC will administer the ONC Certified HIT Mark through four independent ONC-Authorized Certification Bodies (ONC-ACBs) to indicate that the HIT meets all applicable requirements under the ONC HIT Certification Program. Certified products can be found on the Certified Health IT Products List.
The ONC Certified HIT Mark will signify to the health care provider that the highest certification standards have been met wherever the Mark appears.
For more information about the ONC HIT Certification Program and the ONC Certified HIT Mark, please visit www.healthit.gov/policy-researchers-implementers/about-certification.
This article was originally published on the ONC’s Health IT Buzz and is republished here with permission.