Four vendors earned full certification and two others gained conditional approval from the
Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT), as the federally sanctioned private organization announced the results of its first-ever testing of electronic health records (EHRs) for acute care.
CCHIT said Monday that CPSI System version 15 from Computer Programs and Systems Inc. (Mobile, Ala.); Sunrise Acute Care version 4.5, Service Pack 4, from Eclipsys (Atlanta, Ga.); EpicCare Inpatient’s spring 2007 release from Epic Systems (Madison, Wis.); and version 7.0 of the clinical system from Healthcare Management Systems (Nashville, Tenn.), met 100 percent of testing criteria.
Additionally, CCHIT granted pre-market, conditional certification to Siemens Medical Solutions USA for Soarian Clinicals version 2.0C5 with Siemens Pharmacy and Medication Administration Check version 24.0, and to Houston-based Prognosis Health Information Systems for version 1.0 of ChartAccess.
“That means that we don’t have a live site that’s been on the system for 45 days,” CCHIT Chairman Mark Leavitt says of the pre-market designation.
CCHIT officials believe the six products represent nearly a quarter of the U.S. market for complete inpatient systems, including computerized physician order entry (CPOE), electronic medication administration, and clinical decision support, all of which are part of the certification criteria. “We think there are 25 inpatient EHR vendors with full CPOE,” Leavitt says.
The first time CCHIT tested ambulatory products, in mid-2006, 20 vendors -- or nearly 10 percent of the estimated market for outpatient EHRs -- earned certification (see First Certified EHR Products Unveiled). On Monday, the commission disclosed that MedAppz iSuite version 3.5 became the 98th ambulatory product to earn certification since that program began more than a year ago, and the 10th to pass testing against the 2007 ambulatory criteria.
The market for inpatient EHRs is more mature than for ambulatory systems and has gone through more consolidation, but Leavitt says “there’s still a very active market for new systems and replacements on the hospital side.” He also believes that the inpatient market is 10 to 20 times larger in terms of dollar value.
For inpatient certification, each vendor paid $34,000 for the testing process, including $5,800 in annual maintenance fees. Certification is good for up to three years, provided that vendors pay the same maintenance charge in the second and third years.
The second, quarterly application window began last week and will remain open through Nov. 14. The commission will announce any new inpatient certifications in late January. Ambulatory certification is an ongoing process.
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