EHR Certification Seals Round Two

I often wonder why I do so much research on certain subject matters. I will never stop being amazed at the wealth of information you can receive just by posting some information. My post on Wednesday, Identifying Certified EHR Technology Seals, explained how I interpreted the seals being used and my ever asking questions of why?

So here is where I was right. If the government makes and uses a “mark” you will find documentation and rules on it. And that is why there is no documentation on what I thought was the “official” seal from ONC or HHS. This is actually the CCHIT issued seal for products certified under the ONC-ATCB government testing program. So I asked our expert Bambi Rose who has just left CCHIT to clear up the matter. Here is her story and she has confirmed the ONC status with CCHIT’s Marketing Coordinator Diana Coniglio with her current understanding. And I heard from Olga Flores Finneran, Marketing Coordinator for Drummond, she also confirms there is no ONC seal or discussion of doing one.

“The red seal that has the eagle symbol at the top is the property of CCHIT. The seal was developed by CCHIT in the absence of an official seal from the ONC to indicate successful certification of a product under the government testing program. CCHIT decided to leave off the ‘CCHIT’ designation on the red seal to prevent confusion with their proprietary CCHIT Certified Seal. CCHIT offered to allow the ONC to use the seal as the official seal for all government certified products back in the Fall of 2010. ONC has yet to respond to that offer or develop their own seal for all ATCB’s to use. That has forced each of the ATCB’s to develop their own seal which is very confusing to the marketplace.”

And one more correction. Although I found a vendor product using the CCHIT seal it was actually a SLI Global Solution’s certified product. This is their seal which I found on other products they have certified.

Thanks Bambi and Olga!
Have a good weekend.