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Marshfield Clinic's Electronic Health Record First Internally-Developed Program in the Nation to Receive CCHIT Certification

Posted on: Monday, 29 January 2007, 15:01 CST

Marshfield Clinic's CattailsMD (Version 5) is the first internally developed ambulatory electronic health record (EHR) in the nation to achieve Certification Commission for Healthcare Information TechnologySM (CCHIT) certification.

CCHIT today announced that Marshfield Clinic is CCHIT CertifiedSM for its product -- CattailsMD (Version 5) - and meets CCHIT ambulatory EHR criteria for 2006. Ambulatory EHRs are designed for clinics and physician offices where most Americans get their health care.

"This certification acknowledges the comprehensiveness of Marshfield Clinic's EHR," said Carl Christensen, chief information officer, Marshfield Clinic. "Widespread implementation of functional, interoperable and secure EHRs plays an important role in transforming our health care system to be safer, more efficient, timely, patient-centered, equitable and effective. Information technology plays an important role in Marshfield Clinic's commitment to improving the health of patients we serve."

"Our pursuit of CCHIT Certified status is one more example of Marshfield Clinic's commitment to remain a national leader in using information technology to improve patient care," said Justin Starren, M.D., Ph.D., FACMI, director, Marshfield Clinic Biomedical Informatics Research Center and associate medical director, Medical Informatics.

According to Karl Ulrich, M.D., M.M.M., president and chief executive officer, Marshfield Clinic, "An internally-developed EHR must stand up to criticism from physicians who use it. Over time, our product has been scrutinized and developed by physicians who work intimately with our programmers to make it physician-friendly. If it doesn't work for end users, it is not implemented. As Marshfield Clinic moves to commercialize our EHR, we will actively continue to seek physician input."

CCHIT is an independent, voluntary private-sector initiative, awarded a three-year contract in September 2005 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop and evaluate certification criteria and an inspection process for clinic and office EHRs, hospital EHRs and networks through which they work. This non-profit organization sets the benchmark for EHRs. CCHIT CertifiedSM product certification provides an objective set of criteria against which health information technology products can be measured to enable purchasers to reliably make an investment in those products and to assure health care consumers they can trust their information to be stored in those products.

As a CCHIT Certified product, CattailsMD (Version 5) has been tested and passed inspection of 100 percent of a comprehensive set of criteria for:

Functionality, ability to create and manage electronic records for all patients, as well as automating workflow in a physician's office

Interoperability, a first step in the ability to receive and send electronic data to other entities, such as laboratories

Security, ability to keep patients' information safe

"Physicians who purchase certified products have the assurance they have been reviewed by a panel of judges, including practicing physicians, and are being evaluated against standards set by professionals in the field and successfully piloted with products from large and small companies," said Mark Leavitt, M.D., Ph.D., chair, CCHIT.

Goals of CCHIT product certification are to reduce the risk of health information technology (HIT) investment by physicians and other providers; ensure interoperability of HIT products; enhance availability of HIT adoption incentives from purchasers and payers; and protect the privacy of personal health information.

CCHIT's certification compliance criteria and its design for a certification inspection process have been thoroughly researched, taking into account the state of the art of EHRs and available standards, and comparing certification processes in other industries and other countries. The inspection process is based on real-life medical scenarios designed to test products rigorously against the clinical needs of providers and the quality and safety needs of healthcare consumers and payers.

About Marshfield Clinic

Founded in 1916, Marshfield Clinic is one of the largest comprehensive medical systems in the nation. This 750-physician, 6,000-employee multispecialty group practice provides patient care, research and medical education across 41 Wisconsin locations.

With an EHR developed by physicians for physicians, Marshfield Clinic is a leader in delivering integrated patient care in a chartless environment. Physicians have collaborated with an in-house development staff of over 300 IT professionals to develop one of the most advanced ambulatory EHRs in the country. Recognized as a national leader in health care information technology, Marshfield Clinic was honored in 2006 by the Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems for excellence and achievement in applied medical informatics.

About CCHIT

The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHITSM) is an independent, nonprofit organization that has been recognized by the federal government as an official certification body for electronic health record products. Its mission is to accelerate the adoption of health information technology by creating a credible, sustainable product certification program. More information on CCHIT and CCHIT CertifiedSM products is available at www.cchit.org

"CCHITSM" and "CCHIT CertifiedSM" are service marks of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology.

Source: Business Wire

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